Bomb damages NGCP steel tower in North Cotabato

Aleosan in North Cotabato (Image from Google Maps)

COTABATO CITY – A steel tower of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) was bombed by still unidentified men in Aleosan, North Cotabato on Tuesday night, the power firm said.

It was the second attempt to topple NGCP’s steel tower in North Cotabato this year.

Melfrance Bambi Capulong, speaking for the NGCP in southern Mindanao, said an improvised explosive device went off on Tuesday night at Tower 68 of the Kibawe-Kabacan 138-KV line in Barangay Pagangan, Aleosan, North Cotabato.

“The tower did not topple,” Capulong told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone. “It did not affect power transmission.”

She said repair work would start as soon as the security of line workers could be assured.

Tower 68 was also bombed last year.

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

In a statement, the NGCP said: “The company stresses that the bombings only serve to increase the burden of the public, which must suffer through service interruptions when towers are bombed.”

It also 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, the Aleonsan government and the police had put up bamboo perimeter fence on 10 of 17 electric transmission towers in town.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Last year, at least 17 steel towers were destroyed across Mindanao due to bombings, causing inconvenience to power consumers. /atm