Bushfire trips power supply in Maguindanao town

COTABATO CITY, Philippines -  A bushfire melted aluminum power lines dangling between two steel pylons in Maguindanao’s Montawal town Monday, causing outage in many parts of Central Mindanao and all of the 37 barangays here.

Officials of the National Grid Corp. confirmed the incident to radio stations in the city and appealed to farmers in areas straddled through by power lines to refrain from setting on fire grasses and agricultural byproducts such as dried cornstalks, hay and rice hulls near steel towers and dangling power lines.

Power supply in the city was restored past 7:00 p.m. Monday.

The police and the military had ruled out sabotage.

Major Gen. Ronnie Ordoyo, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, whose office was affected by the power outage, said he has ordered all military units under his command to embark on an education campaign meant to help educate the public in Central Mindanao on how to prevent a repeat of the incident in Montawal that plunged many parts of the region into total darkness.

Ordoyo also asked local government units to help in their peaceful campaign to help maintain and protect power facilities in the 6th ID’s territory.  - John Unson