Bandits bomb NGCP tower in North Cotabato town

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines – Bandits brought down a strategic power relay pylon in Barangay Pagangan in Aleosan, North Cotabato with explosives on Tuesday night.

Superintendent Romeo Galgo, Jr., spokesman of Police Regional Office-12, on Wednesday said the bombing, however, did not cut the supply of electricity to villages in Aleosan and neighboring towns in the province.

Galgo, citing a report by the Aleosan municipal police, said the power transmission cables running through the damaged Tower 68 of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) dangled loosely above the ground but remained intact.

The tower connects towns in North Cotabato to a state-owned hydroelectric plant in Bukidnon province.

Local police probers are convinced the bombing was perpetrated by members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Responding police discovered that the bombers strapped an explosive device on each of the four angular columns of the tower.

More than a dozen NGCP towers in Maguindanao and North Cotabato have been bombed in the past two years.