ILIGAN CITY – The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’s tower No. 8 located at Sitio San Isidro, Barangay Bagumbayan in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte was bombed on Monday, Oct. 24.
The incident caused NGCP's Baloi-Aurora 138kv Transmission Line to trip at 4:50 p.m. which also resulted in a Manual Load Dropping (MLD) to prevent overloading of the remaining line.
Areas affected by MLD were the entire Zamboanga Peninsula, namely Zamboanga Del Norte (Including Dipolog and Dapitan City), Zamboanga Del Sur (including Pagadian and Zamboanga City), Zamboanga Sibugay, entire Misamis Occidental, and parts of Lanao del Norte.
The bombing resulted in the toppling of the tower.
A still unidentified individual was found at the scene with fatal injuries during a conduct of joint clearing operations by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.
It was later verified the individual seen in the area was dead, according to Kauswagan MPS Police Major Exequiel P Arcayena.
It was no clear if the found dead body was related to the bombing.
Responding authorities confirmed that lawless elements used IEDs to bomb the said tower. The incident is under investigation.
Repair of Tower No.8 will commence as soon as the area is secured.
NGCP is currently coordinating with law enforcement to secure the area as repairs are to be done by NGCP personnel.
The company stresses that bombings only serve to increase the burden of the public, which must suffer through power interruptions when towers are bombed.
It reiterates that the conduct of suspicious activities within or along the power transmission corridor which may disrupt the transmission of power is punishable by law with a penalty of as much as P200,000 or 12 years imprisonment, or both.
Suspicious activities or ROW violations may be reported to NGCP through its TIP Hotline 0917-TIPNGCP (8476427) or 0918-TIPNGCP (8476427) or email to [email protected]