Explosion hits North Cotabato power post

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Gunmen bombed Thursday night a steel power relay pylon in Aleosan town in North Cotabato, plunging a big part of Central Mindanao into total darkness until press time today.

The bombers destroyed Tower 68 of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) at the border of Barangays Bagolibas and Pagangan, both in Aleosan, by setting off improvised explosive devices they strapped on its four angular columns.

The explosives, wired parallel to each other to ensure a powerful blast, were detonated from a distance using mobile phones.

The destruction of the facility immediately caused massive outage in the first district of North Cotabato, in all of the 37 barangays in Cotabato City and in about 20 of Maguindanao’s 36 municipalities.

Supply of electricity in the affected areas has not been restored yet until press time, 10:15 a.m. Friday.

Senior Superintendent Alex Tagum, director of the North Cotabato provincial police, said probers are still trying to establish the identities of the bombers.

At least four towers of the NGCP in different North Cotabato towns were felled in one bombing after another in the past six months.

Local officials tagged the brigand Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) as responsible for the attacks.

The BIFF, led by clerics trained in religious schools in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Libya, is not covered by the interim ceasefire pact between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Many BIFF commanders openly admit being sympathetic to the Independent State of Iraq and Syria.