Blast hits National Grid tower in Central Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—A powerful explosion hit a steel tower of the National Grid Corp., resulting in an hourlong power outage in Maguindanao and adjoining Central Mindanao provinces Thursday night.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said an initial report from the Kabacan police and the 7th Infantry Battalion showed that a still unknown type of bomb went off at around 7:45 p.m. causing a blackout here and adjacent provinces, including Koronadal City in South Cotabato.

Hermoso said unidentified armed men planted the explosive at the foot of the transmission tower.

Noel Punzalan, Cotabato bureau chief of the Philippine News Agency, said the power here was restored an hour later when the Aboitiz-owned Cotabato Light and Power Co. started to operate its standby generators.

So far, there were no reported casualties in the blast that happened a few days after Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters attacked a government militia outpost in nearby Midsayap town of North Cotabato and took as hostages school children and a dozen teachers whom the rebels eventually freed.

The bomb attack at the NGC tower also happened on the same day text messages circulated that a joint BIFF-Moro National Liberation Front force would launch an offensive anytime this week.