Joint police and military authorities are hunting down
unidentified men who tried, but failed, to topple two transmission towers of
the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in Carmen, North Cotabato early Tuesday morning, police said today.
Chief Insp. Julius Malcontento, Carmen town police chief,
said elements of North Cotabato police office and combatants of the 7th
Infantry Battalion have joined forces in running after the perpetrators, who
local officials claimed were residents of nearby towns in North Cotabato.
Malcontento said the suspects planted six powerful
improvised explosive devices on Towers No. 95 and 96 located in Barangay Aroman
and Barangay Kitulaan, respective, all in the town of Carmen
Quoting village officials, Malcontento said that loud
explosions were heard by villagers that came almost simultaneously shortly
before 1 a.m. of April 19.
He said nobody was reported injured in the series of
explosions, he said.
Police and military bomb disposal team's investigation
showed that the suspects planted three IEDs on Tower 95 and another three IEDs
on Tower 96.
All three IEDs, fashioned from 60 mm mortars with mobile
phone as triggering devices and attached to the structure's steel poles (tower
96) went off, cutting all the three legs.“The tower remained standing and still
serviceable,” Malcontento said.
At Tower 95, two of the three IEDs went off, cutting two
legs of the steel tower.
“It remained standing, too,” he said, adding that the third
IED was safely defused by police and Army bomb experts.
When asked why the towers were not toppled, Malcontento
theorized that the other steel braces of the towers remained intact and that
the power lines helped held the affected structures.
Malcontento said the two structures were also bombed in the
past with Tower No. 95 bombed last December 24, 2015 and Tower 96 sometime in
2006.
“No one has owned up the bombing but police and Army probers
are eyeing extortionist groups to be behind the attack,"
The structures carry the 138 KV line from NGCP station in
Kibawe, Bukidnon to another station in Kabacan, North
Cotabato .
Malcontento said the village officials of Kitulaan and
Aroman have vowed to help the police identify the suspects.
"This is the 4th and 5th bombing of NGCP towers this
year. Restoration of the two towers will commence as soon as the area is
secured," Melfrance Bambi Capulong, speaking for the NGCP southern Mindanao , said in a statement.
She said NGCP stressed that the bombings only serve to
increase the burden of the public, which must suffer through service
interruptions when towers are bombed.
"NGCP appeals to the local community and its leaders to
help identify the perpetrators of the bombings to prevent longer power
interruptions," she said.
Malcontento said police and Army elements were deployed
around the two towers while repair works conducted by NGCP field personnel were
going on.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=877878
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