By Richel Umel
Inquirer.Net
Mindanao Bureau
First Posted 21:52:00 02/05/2008

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines -- Two more towers of the National Transmission Corporation (Transco) in Marawi City were bombed early morning Monday bringing to 14 the number of the firm’s steel towers bombed since the start of the year, authorities said Tuesday.

Loremir Adasa, acting Transco vice president for Visayas and Mindanao, said the two towers, located in the village of Guimba in Marawi, are considered the 13th of 14th steel towers bombed by still unidentified men this year.

Emmanuel Abellanosa, vice president for Transco Mindanao Operations and Maintenance, said the bombs, fashioned from 81 mm mortars, were attached to steel towers No. 10 and No. 11.

Abellanosa said that after the attack, there was brief low voltage in the power supply in some parts of Mindanao but the problem has already been addressed.

Lanao del Norte Representative Abdullah Dimaporo on Sunday organized a Crisis Management Committee (CMC) composed of representatives from Transco, local government, the police and military, and civil society groups to help address the problem on tower attacks.

Bombed were Tower 83 in Kolambugan, Lanao del Norte; Tower 22 in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte; Tower 26 in Agus 2-Kibawe line; Tower 4 in Abaga; Tower 39 in Kauswagan; Tower 19 in Sugod, Marawi City; Tower 15 in Abuno, Iligan City; Tower 8 and Tower 9 in Abaga and Tagoloan; Tower 50 in Bubong, Lanao del Sur; Tower 59 in Buadiposo Buntong, Lanao del Sur; Tower 13 in Kiamba, Marawi City; and Tower 44 in Pagayawan of Bacolod, Lanao del Norte.

Sources at Transco said the total damage has reached at least P14 million.

Transco earlier urged residents of the two Lanao provinces to help in securing the facilities.

Abellanosa said if the bombing of the towers would not be stopped, the company’s delivery of power to its service areas would be greatly affected and "darkness will engulf the island (of Mindanao)."

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, chief of police in the Autonomous Region (ARMM), earlier said they believed that extortion groups were behind the incidents.

But the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said the attacks against the power transmission facilities of Transco could be linked to the long-standing gripe of the Maranaos (indigenous people of Lanao provinces) against the government’s energy program.

Khaled Musa, deputy chair of the MILF committee on information, said the government has been tapping energy from sources in the two Lanao provinces -- Lake Lanao in Lanao del Sur and Maria Christina Falls in Lanao del Norte -- but the Maranaos had been deprived of a steady and enough supply of electricity.

Musa said many areas in Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte had remained without power supply for years now. With reports from Edwin O. Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao

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