Police, Army hunt NGCP tower bombers

From the Philippine News Agency (Oct 4): Police, Army hunt NGCP tower bombers

Police and military authorities, along with force-multipliers, are hunting down those responsible in the toppling of National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) steel pylon in a remote village here Tuesday night.

Chief Insp. Julius Malcontento, Carmen town police chief, said unidentified men set off a powerful improvised bomb at one of the columns of NGCP Steel Tower No. 106 at Purok 1, Barangay Manarapan in Carmen, North Cotabato.

“The explosion occurred at 11:30 p.m. but there was no blackout in our area of jurisdiction,” Malcontento said of the incident that plunged into darkness the entire Cotabato City and also portions of North Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces.

The affected steel tower carries the 138KV line of NGCP from its station in Maramag, Bukidnon to Kabacan, North Cotabato and other parts of Central Mindanao.

Malcontento said while Tower 106 was toppled down it did not affect the other towers, which also carry the 138KV line. NGCP Tower 106 is located about five kilometers from Carmen town center and situated in the middle of a banana plantation.

“Motive of the attack remains unknown as of this time,” Malcontento told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in a phone interview.

Malcontento said village watchmen and members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPT) are helping the police in identifying and locating the perpetrators.

Army and police bomb experts have recovered components of the IED used by the unidentified suspects. Suspected militants in North Cotabato and Maguindanao have bombed more than 20 NGCP steel towers in what authorities believed could be carried out by the lawless elements to divert attention of military operations against them in Maguindanao.

Currently, government forces and its ally, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, had been pursuing ISIS--inspired Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Maguindanao’s second district.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1011706