MILF sabotage blamed for Mindanao blackout

Suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas blew up a power transmission line and toppled at least five power pylons in Lanao del Norte late Wednesday, leaving about 18 million people in Mindanao in darkness.

Electricity was restored yesterday morning as the government power utility firms fired up emergency generating stations.

Military Southern Command (Southcom) spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said Muslim rebels used mortars and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) in toppling the transmission pylons of the Abaga substation in Baloi town around 11:25 p.m.

"Rounds of mortar were fired and the nerve line was hit, sending the whole Mindanao in total darkness," Lucero said.

No casualties were reported in the attacks, which blacked out the key Min-danao cities of Davao, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, Butuan and Malaybalay, said Max Adiong, operations chief for Mindanao of state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor).

Iligan — a city of about 300,000 people — was not affected, but Adiong said 90 percent of Mindanao was without electricity for most of the night.

Adiong said power was restored to about 90 percent of the island, using diesel-fired power barges moored off port cities and a geothermal plant near Davao. The repair of the damage to the structures, however, would take at least a week to complete.

Despite the restoration of electricity, initial reports said parts of Mindanao particularly the western, central and northern sections, were still experiencing power outages.

These included the cities of Dipolog, Ozamis, Oroquieta, Pagadian, Dapitan and Tangub.

Napocor spokesman Raffy Magbanua said they are now using backup power facilities to restore electricity in these key areas of Mindanao.

He said the problem of Napocor is now focused on how to transmit the power since the vital power transmission grids, such as the one located in Baloi, were destroyed.

The blackout gripped civilians in fear in the wake of circulating text messages that the MILF would launch simultaneous offensives in key places in Mindanao.

Lucero said their initial investigation showed that MILF rebels carried out the bomb attack.

"The MILF has earlier threatened to attack power stations and steel towers, and we are blaming them for these attacks," he said.

"Their main mission is to sow fear and anxiety among the civilians as a result of this terroristic attack of the MILF," he added.

Lucero claimed the military has been receiving intelligence reports that Muslim separatist guerrillas are plotting to hit power lines in Mindanao as part of the MILF’s operation "to show that they are still capable of waging hostility against the military."

The Baloi attack, Lucero, adversely affected troop deployments in Mindanao.

"Definitely, it will affect the deployment of our forces since we have to deploy troops also to secure these pylons of transmission lines to prevent rebels from toppling it down," he said.

Napocor officials said they are now coordinating with the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police (PNP) for security arrangement to prevent further attacks on power transmission lines.

Southcom chief Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya said government troops have deployed to guard key transmission lines in Mindanao, some of which traverse hinterland areas.

"We have sent soldiers to guard vital power facilities in Mindanao and at the same time troops are hunting down the terrorists responsible for the attacks," Abaya said.

He urged the public to remain vigilant to prevent future attacks. "The fight against terrorism is not just (the responsibility of) the military, but everybody."

MILF issues denial

Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the MILF was behind the attacks. Without elaborating, he said "other interested groups" could have taken advantage of the situation.

"There is no such order to our forces because these are anti-people activities," Kabalu said. "They are counter-productive for us."

Another MILF spokesman, Mohaqher Iqbal, denied in an interview over Roman Catholic radio dxMS in Cotabato City that his group was behind the sabotage.

But he said the MILF is on a renewed offensive against the government two weeks after a major military campaign dislodged the separatist rebels from their main stronghold in Pikit, North Cotabato.

The military also blamed the MILF for the 11 previous attacks on power pylons in Mindanao.

Napocor officials said at least P2 million will be spent to repair each felled steel tower.

Officials also estimated the transmission towers toppled in Baloi would cost P5 million in revenue losses.

The MILF previously vowed to carry out retaliatory attacks against the government by employing guerrilla tactics.

Army officials believe the attacks are reprisals for the capture of government forces of their stronghold in Pikit which left almost 200 rebels dead.

"The MILF has been hitting soft targets because they cannot fight head-on against the Armed Forces," Lucero said.

The outage occurred while 60,000 troops were placed on high alert in Mindanao to ward off what the military said were possible attacks by MILF guerrillas.

The attack came after MILF chairman Hashim Salamat last Monday supposedly issued a "total war" order against government forces.

A Muslim leader, however, claimed the downfall of the MILF’s stronghold in Pikit practically disrupted the chain of command of the rebels.

"The MILF leadership has already lost control over its guerrilla fronts, the government is now dealing with hundreds of independent guerrilla fronts," Datu Norodin Alonto Lucman, chairman of the Muslim Multi-sectoral Movement for Peace and Development (MMSMDP) told The STAR.

But Lucman also noted the claim made by Kabalu that "other groups" could have taken advantage of the situation.

Lucman said some of the armed groups who are now carrying out the pylon attacks may not be members of the MILF but residents who have an ax to grind against Napocor.

He said some angry residents who were unjustly driven out of their lands by the Napocor in constructing the power transmission pylons could have carried out the attack.

"Adding insult to injury is that Maranaos were (being) charged with purchased power adjustment (PPA) when the electricity they are paying for comes from our lakes and river (Agus 1 and Pulangi)," he said.

Lucman suggested the complete withdrawal of government troops in conflict areas such as Pikit "to create a favorable atmosphere" for the resumption of peace talks.

He said the government must allow the MILF to reestablish its chain of command to account for its guerrillas driven out from their stronghold in Pikit.

"It is better to talk than letting the guns do the talking, after all, Malaysia is hosting the peace talks," Lucman said.

The MILF said they could talk peace through Malaysian mediators until Manila orders the complete pullout of troops in the area.

The rebels also charged the government of insincerity by claiming the primary reason for the military in attacking Pikit was just to capture MILF top ranking leaders.

The military said they attacked the MILF enclave because the rebels were allowing terrorist and kidnap-for-ransom gangs to shelter in the area.

However, the MILF denied that it ever sheltered terrorist or kidnapping groups and cited government statements which they said proved that the real objective was to oust the MILF in the area and capture its top leaders.

The rebels quoted an alleged government order, dated Feb. 11, stating the military must arrest Salamat, Kabalu, MILF military commander Muhammad Murad, among others.

"The plan is to capture Salamat dead or alive," the MILF quoted the government order as saying.

The rebels cited alleged government plans to develop possible oil fields in Liguasan marshlands beside the Buliok complex, in cooperation with the Malaysian state oil company Petronas.

Malacañang, however, denied issuing such an order and suspected the looming peace talks with the MILF were being sabotaged.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said there were apparent attempts to sabotage the peace talks with the MILF on the issuance of a "Memorandum of Instructions" supposedly emanating from Malacañang, which he described as a "spurious document."

Copies of the document supposedly bearing the letterhead of Malacañang addressed to Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and ostensibly signed by President Arroyo, were circulating.

The two-page memorandum stated, among other things, the supposed "Oplan Green Base" in which Mrs. Arroyo purportedly ordered the Armed Forces to carry out military offensives to remove the MILF from Pikit, capture its leaders, and develop the nearby Liguasan marshland to proceed with long-delayed oil exploration in the area.

"That’s spurious. In the first place, there is no oil in Liguasan," Bunye said. "(It’s) being circulated probably to agitate the Muslim population in Mindanao."

Bunye said Malacañang is not keen on tracing the source of the document. "(Obviously) the source of this document emanated from a group that doesn’t want peace between the MILF and the government," he said.

Mrs. Arroyo also clarified that the development plan is to transform Buliok and Liguasan marshland as corn and palm oil plantations with Malaysia providing the palm oil materials with investments from Libya. – With Lino de la Cruz, Donnabelle Gatdula, Jaime Laude, Ben Serrano, Perseus Echeminada, Marichu Villanueva, AFP