Friday, February 01, 2008 2 other posts set on fire in same area in San Fernando town: Transco tells cops
TWO other electric posts had been set on fire in the same area in San Fernando town where a post was torched on Monday night, the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) said yesterday.
This was what Transco officials told investigators of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) yesterday morning.
Representatives of Transco submitted their statement to the Provincial Investigation and Detective Management Branch (PIDMB) and said that aside from Monday night’s incident, two other posts were burned on Oct. 7, 2005 and Sept. 17, 2006.
Last Monday, post 39 was torched, causing a 13-hour blackout in Cebu’s southern towns. In the 2005 incident, post 42 was burned while in 2006, it was post 38 that was torched.
SPO3 Joseph Yongco, acting San Fernando police chief, said no one from Transco reported the other two incidents to their police station.
Ben Ypil of the Transco corporate comunications office said they only knew of the two previous incidents when last Monday’s burning was reported.
“In fairness to the (Transco) linemen, I was the one who told the media that it was the first time that a wooden pole was intentionally burned. Honest mistake,” Ypil said in a text message to Sun.Star Cebu.
Police Insp. Ramon Villar, who talked to the line foremen of Transco yesterday, said they did not report the previous two incidents because linemen were immediately able to fix the lines and power was immediately restored.
By design
Villar said the investigation on the incident is still ongoing and that it was still too soon to say whether communist rebels or neighborhood toughies were behind it.
But Transco told police they were sure the torching was intentional.
Yongco, for his part, also said he doubts that addicts or rebels were behind the torching of the post.
He said San Fernando is not known as an area where communist rebels regularly go. He added that if they wanted to create atrocities, they would not have wasted time in burning dried coconut leaves to set fire to the post.
Yongco said rebels would have used gasoline to burn the pole faster.
He also said they have members of the barangay intelligence network who immediately report suspicious-looking persons.
As for addicts burning the post, he said the area was too far for them to be visiting.
He explained that the area where the post was located was deserted.
“Lisod kaayo didto. Dili pa kaabot ang mga batan-on didto mohupas na ilang ka-high (It’s difficult to go to the area),” Yongco said.
Even residents had no idea that the post was burned because it was located far from where the houses stood.
At the Capitol, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia criticized those who immediately blamed rebels for the burning.
“I did not fall into the trap as one spokesman did, in immediately issuing a knee-jerk reaction and talking about the NPAs. And now it’s getting apparently clear that it was a knee-jerk reaction,” Garcia told reporters yesterday.
Check
Central Command spokesman Jefferson Omandam earlier told radio dyLA he believed that “most likely” the incident was the handiwork of the New People’s Army.
San Fernando Mayor Lakambini Reluya also doubted that rebels were behind the burning.
“The percentage is getting less that the rebels are behind it,” Reluya told Sun.Star Cebu. Evidence, she said, is veering away from that angle.
Reluya said the area where the post is located is isolated, with the nearest households at least one or two kilometers away. She said she went to the site last Wednesday with CPPO officials and a Manila-based forensic investigator, who gathered samples of the charred wooden post.
Garcia, meanwhile, said she is waiting for the investigation of the CPPO to finish.
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“I will comment when I already have all the facts in. In the meantime, giving speculative reactions such as those from people tasked to be more responsible will certainly not do any good to our community. It will only create panic and uncertainty when there really is no need to,” said Garcia.
“It just glorified the NPAs and it’s totally counter-productive to our efforts in promoting Cebu,” she continued.
The governor said that in every Regional Peace and Order Council meeting, reports would show that there is a “very significant decline in NPA activities.”
In Cebu City, policemen assigned to mountain areas were ordered to intensify monitoring of vital installations following the San Fernando incident.
Cebu City Police Office Director Patrocinio Comendador said he issued a directive to the Security and Service Group under the supervision of Supt. Pablo Labra II to tighten its watch over hinterland barangays.
Comendador said barangay tanods and members of the barangay intelligence network will be tapped to help tighten security. (MEA/JGA/with JST and EOB)
