There is no direct link between the perpetrators behind the
Christmas eve bombing of Tower 25 of the National Grid Corporation of the
Philippines (NGCP) in Lanao del Sur and the family who has unsettled claims
with the government over this land, an official of the Mindanao Development
Authority (MinDA) said on Monday.
Speaking in Monday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City,
Romeo Montenegro, director for Investment Promotion, International Relations
and Public Affairs, told reporters that it is not conclusive whether the owners
who were recently identified by NGCP as Johnny Sambitori, Intan Sambitori, and
Naguib Sambitori have hands in the incident, which resulted in the isolation of
the Agus 1 and Agus 2 hydroelectric plants from the Mindanao grid.
He said Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. will convince
the family to allow the NGCP personnel entry so that they can start the
reconstruction works on the toppled tower and construction of emergency
restoration tower (ERS) to temporarily connect Agus 1 and 2 to the grid.
He said Tower 25, located at Ditsaan-Ramain in Lanao del
Sur, was built 60 years ago by Napocor.
In 2001, the year when Republic Act 9136 or the Electric
Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) was passed into law, the grid operation was
relegated to the newly created National Transmission Corporation (TransCo).
When privatization came in 2007, the TransCo concession was awarded to the
National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada, in an interview with
reporters during the inauguration of Therma South Inc.’s (TSI) 300-megawatt
coal-fired power plant in Binugao, Toril, this city, told reporters that they
are still verifying whether some of the claimants, including the locations of
the other NGCP towers in Mindanao, have been paid already for the right of way.
She said most claims have already been paid, but they are
still looking for the records for those that have not been paid yet. “We still
have to check if the claims are still valid, and as to how much, and if the
amount is reasonable,” she said.
Monsada said that in the case of Tower 25, the Sambitoris
refused NGCP personnel entry, demanding that they be paid first with their
claims.
She added that the cost of repair works on damaged towers
will be passed on to the consumers through the electricity bills.
In an interview with Milfrance Capulong, NGCP spokesperson
for Mindanao, she said that 16 towers were bombed in 2015, of which nine were
toppled and seven were damaged, in Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Cotabato City
She said the rest of the towers, except for Tower 25, have
been restored with the construction of emergency restoration structure (ERS), a
temporary foundation made of steel that is propped up to deliver the power from
the sources.
Other than Tower 25, Towers 19 and 20, Tower 95, Tower 68,
Tower 168, and Tower 153 were all bombed in December. The latest was Tower 4,
bombed on December 28 at Barangay Nangka in the municipality of Baloi
She said this was the worst in seven years since
2009, the year TransCo turned over the management and operation of nationwide
transmission system to NGCP.
Unlike before when 100 percent of Mindanao ’s
power was derived from the Agus-Pulangui Hydropower Complex, he said that the
island’s grid will not suffer from total blackout the towers are attacked
because the grid now has various sources of power – coal, diesel, and renewable
energy all across the island.
“If one tower will be damaged, there are alternate redundant
connectivity points that can be tapped by the NGCP,” Montenegro
He said that new power plants have been built in areas with
high demand for power.
http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2016/01/11/no-link-between-bombing-suspects-and-land-owners-minda/
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