Transmission post torched: 13-hour blackout hits Cebu’s south

Police are now looking into the motive in the torching of electric posts of the National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) in Pitalo, San Fernando that resulted to a 13-hour power outage in the southern part of Cebu province.

Electric power to Carcar City and 17 other municipalities on the southern tip of the island province were restored at 8 a.m. yesterday.

Burned was a post for TransCo’s 69 kilovolt overhead transmission cable that serves the franchise area of the Cebu Electric Cooperative Inc. (CEBECO) I.

 Benjamin Ypil, TransCo-Visayas information officer, said that the incident happened at 6:51 p.m. last Monday. He said only one post was burned, but the fire spread and affected the two nearby posts.

 After receiving the report on the incident, TransCo immediately sent personnel to the area to fix the problem.

Ypil said the problem was fixed and power was restored at 7:42 a.m. yesterday.

The town of San Fernando was not however affected by the power outage since it is outside the franchise area of CEBECO I.

 Ypil said they suspect the incident was intentional because when they went to the area, they found dried coconut leaves near one of the posts.

 Ypil, in a separate interview by ABS-CBN yesterday admitted that they have received demand letters from unknown individuals asking for money in exchange for the security of their power lines, but these were not confirmed by the PNP.

He said they will forward the result of their own investigation to TransCo’s internal security and to the police for further investigation.

 CEBECO I franchise area covers Carcar City and the towns of Alegria, Alcantara, Alcoy, Argao, Badian, Barili, Ginatilan, Dumanjug, Dalaguete, Boljoon, Malabuyoc, Moalboal, Ronda, Oslob, Sibonga, Santander, and Samboan.

Police Action

Cebu Provincial Police Office director, Sr. Supt Carmelo Valmoria told reporters yesterday that it is too early to speculate that the incident was a handiwork of the New People’s Army.

Valmoria, however, sent a team from the Special Reaction Unit to back the local police in the area.

The provincial police chief said that he would have to get all the details first before making any pronouncement on who is responsible.

“Dili pa, it is still premature, we do not have any basis to say that these were perpetrated by the Communist terrorists, unknown ang perpetrators, wala ta kahibalo kung binuhatan lang ba kini sa mga bugoy. We do not want to cause an alarm to the public,” Valmoria said.

Last week, the provincial police have twice received reports from civilians regarding presence of three armed men wielding M-16 Armalite rifles at the boundary of Pinamungahan and San Fernando towns.

Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Jefferson Omandam, spokesman of the Central Command, told reporters yesterday that there is a big possibility that this is handiwork of the insurgents.

He said that it is known that the NPA burns vital installations around the country to demand for revolutionary taxes.

In Iligan City, TransCo acting vice president, Emmanuel Abellanosa, in a report over GMA News TV announced that in January alone they have recorded a total of nine towers that were destroyed by still unidentified perpetrators using bombs.

The cost to repair these towers is P1 million, while P100,000 to P200,000 is needed to repair a partially damaged structure, Abellanosa said.

Abellanosa admitted that Transco does not have enough security personnel to guard all these power towers from those who want to pilfer them.

TransCo has an existing “Bantay Linya” program tasked to secure power lines in the country especially those in areas far from the main roads. Most of the watchmen are local residents in the area recommended by the barangay officials.

Omandam said they would be meeting with the Transco officials to address these problems.

Leony Bacus, a resident in the area told reporters that they did not anybody torching the post.  They reportedly noticed what was happening when the post was already burning.

SFO4 Virgilio Gelig, fire marshal  of San Fernando town, recovered from the scene a dried coconut leaves believed to have been used ignite the gasoline in starting the fire on the wooden post.

Arson investigators took samples from the burnt post so it can be chemically analyzed in the PNP Crime Laboratory.

Police also found several lotto tickets near the scene.

Meanwhile, Cebu City Police Office director, Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador immediately ordered Service Security Group and the Mountain Patrol to check the transmission towers in the city’s area of responsibility and help secure them.— (/NLQ)