Extortionists cut off power in Cotabato

COTABATO CITY — Suspected extortionists, using hacksaws, toppled down a transmission post of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) in the nearby Maguindanao town of Sultan Kudarat Tuesday night, plunging this city and the entire province into darkness.

The Cotabato Light and Power Co. here has since been temporarily supplying electricity to different areas here, rationing power for two hours to each district using its old, petroleum-fed stationary turbines.

Engineer Jose Palma, Napocor’s operations chief in Central Mindanao, said their linemen failed to repair the transmission post in Barangay Rebuken right away because heavily armed men were roaming around the felled structure. — John Unson