NGCP facility bombed in North Cotabato, tower not toppled

ALEOSAN, North Cotabato – Unidentified
men bombed another transmission tower of the National Grid Corporation (NGCP)
in Aleosan, North Cotabato Thursday night but the steel tower was not toppled,
police said.

The two improvised explosive devices
that went off at 11:58 p.m. damaged two legs of NGCP Tower No. 63, according to
Senior Inspector Jun J. Napat, Aleosan town police chief.

The tower remained standing, the
blasts only damaged two of its four feet,” Napat said.

The incident also did not trigger
outage,” he added.

No one has claimed responsibility for the
bomb attack in Purok 4, Barangay Pagangan, Aleosan, North Cotabato, the first
bomb attack in the province.

Repair will start as soon as area is
secured,” it said. It was the first bombing incident against NGCP facilities in
Mindanao this year.

At least 16 NGCP towers were bombed in
North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur in 2015, according to NGCP.

Napat said the IED was fashioned from
60 or 80 mm mortars with mobile phone as trigger mechanism. Another IED was
found near the damaged tower.

In a statement, NGCP said the bombings
only serve to increase the burden of the public, which must suffer through
service interruptions when towers are bombed.

NGCP is appealing to the public, local
and national goverment, PNP and AFP to help monitor the safety of the towers so
that transmission services remain uninterrupted.

The company also reiterate itsappeal to local
community leaders to help identify the perpetrators of the bombings, and to
negotiate with uncooperative landowners, to prevent longer power interruptions.

Before Thursday night’s bombing, an
improvised bomb also exploded in Purok Mirasol, Barangay Polomoguen, Midsayap,
North Cotabato.The blast occurred at 10:30
p.m. on Wednesday night but nobody was hurt since the area was isolated from
civilian communities.

The blast came while Midsayap is in the
thick of preparations for its patronal fiesta on Sunday.