Another NGCP tower in North Cotabato bombed

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 19): Another NGCP tower in North Cotabato bombed

Unidentified men set off an improvised explosive device on a steel tower of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in Aleosan, North Cotabato on Tuesday night, an NGCP official said.

Milfrance Capulong, speaking for NGCP southern Mindanao, said the tower was not toppled.
The bomb attack did not affect power transmission in the area, she said.

It was the second bombing of NGCP tower this year in North Cotabato.

Citing a police report, Capulong said an improvised explosive device went off on Tuesday night at Tower 68 of the Kibawe-Kabacan 138KV line in Barangay Pagangan, Aleosan town.

She said repair works will commence once security in the area is assured. The same Tower 68 had been bombed last year.

Last March 1, unidentified men also tried but failed to topple NGCP Tower 138 of the Kibawe-Kabacan 138KV line located in Barangay Kayaga, Kabacan, North Cotabato.

The North Cotabato police and the Army's 602nd Infantry Brigade have launched manhunt operations against the suspects of the latest bomb attack.

In a statement, the NGCP appealed to the public to help secure NGCP lines to prevent power outages and inconvenience to the locals.

Due to the series of bombings of steel towers last year in this town, the local government of Aleosan and the police had put up bamboo perimeter fences on 10 of 17 electric transmission towers in the town.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Last year, at least 17 steel towers were destroyed across Mindanao due to bombings, which inconvenienced power consumers in the region.

The outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and extortion groups were blamed for the bombings.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=980906