Suspected BIFF members bomb NGCP tower

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Suspected members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) toppled down Sunday night a power relay pylon of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in Barangay Ladia in Sultan Kudarat town, plunging dozens of villages into total darkness until Monday dawn.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the NGCP’s Tower 168 in Barangay Ladia was virtually destroyed by explosives, cutting supply of electricity from a state-run hydro-electric plant in Bukidnon to all of Cotabato City’s 37 barangays and dozens of villages in several Maguindanao towns.

Hermoso said the bombers strapped powerful improvised explosive devices on the footings of the pylon and set them off using a mobile phone at about 9 p.m. Sunday.

The bombing came just two weeks after Army bomb experts managed to promptly deactivate a roadside bomb bandits planted along a portion of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Barangay Ladia, not far from the power relay facility.

Power was restored in the affected areas past 8 a.m. Monday after the NGCP temporarily tapped electricity from its relay facilities in nearby provinces, pending the reconstruction of the damaged tower.