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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Suspected NPAs cause blackout in southern Cebu
CEBU CITY -- The blackout that struck Carcar City and 16 towns in southern Cebu was caused by the torching of a wooden electric post in the mountain barangay of Upper Pitalo, San Fernando town.
Ben Ypil, of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) Visayas corporate communications office, said the power outage lasted nearly 14 hours, from 6:51 p.m. on January 28 till 7:42 a.m. Tuesday, January 29.
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When the burning pole, carrying 69,000 kilovolts, started to keel over, it created a "domino effect" and brought down with it two other nearby poles.
Transco District 2 security officers Deogracias Bantilan and Rex Ursal told Sun.Star Cebu that the affected poles provided electricity to the Cebu Electric Cooperative (Cebeco) 1, which serves southern Cebu households.
Power was cut off in Carcar City, Sibonga, Argao, Dalaguete, Alcoy, Boljoon, Oslob, Santander, Samboan, Ginatilan, Malabuyoc, Alegria, Badian, Moalboal, Ronda, Dumanjug and Barili.
Ypil said power was restored after the burned pole was replaced.
Usual suspects
Cebu Provincial Police Chief Carmelo Valmoria said the reported sightings of armed men in the area are not enough to say the incident was carried out by rebels. He, however, said they are not discounting the possibility.
"It is still premature. We do not want to speculate. We do not have any basis to say it was perpetrated by rebels. There is nothing to be alarmed about," he said.
Valmoria said rebels are concentrating their operations in the mid-north area.
But Central Command spokesman Jefferson Omandam, in a radio dyLA interview, believes that "most likely" the incident was the handiwork of the New People's Army (NPA).
He said they are verifying reports that the rebels have been crisscrossing from one island to another to avoid capture. He also said the rebels have been extorting "revolutionary taxes" from companies, among them Transco.
Transco security officer Ursal said they did not receive any threats or extortion attempts prior to the incident.
Protection
But Ypil, in a separate interview, said that the company has received threatening letters, particularly in relation to Transco's Cebu-Negros Interconnection Uprating Project.
"They were asking for protection money. If the company doesn't give, naa daw mahitabo (something would happen)," he said.
The letter was unsigned.
Ypil, though, saw no indication that rebels were behind last Monday's incident.
Linemen from Cebeco 1 and Transco worked around the clock and braved the rough terrain to transport line materials to the mountainous site, he said.
He said two adjacent wooden poles in Sitio Lakaron, some two kilometers from the highway in Barangay Pitalo, were also damaged. The cables snapped after the fire toppled the transmission line.
Torch
Transco officials and personnel led by Ypil, Director Valmoria and a team of the Special Reaction Unit, an investigator from the Bureau of Fire Protection in San Fernando and two members from the military command inspected the area yesterday morning.
A Transco press release revealed that dried coconut leaves were still scattered at the foot of the affected transmission line, indicating that the fire was started intentionally by still unknown culprits.
Ypil said a resident near the scene saw a man carrying a torch scampering away after the fire engulfed the wooden pole.
Contrary to earlier reports, Transco clarified that it was not a bomb that toppled the transmission line and caused the blackout.
Ypil said Transco also appealed to the public to be more vigilant and to report immediately any suspicious character roaming around its transmission lines, particularly in mountain barangays.
"The big damage is in term of opportunity losses and the unserved energy," Ypil said.
Sightings
Prior to the incident, there were several reports received by both police and the military about sightings of men, reportedly with long firearms, in neighboring Barangay Bugho, San Fernando, at the boundary of Pinamungajan.
Valmoria said that based on the information that reached his office, the armed men were sighted last January 18 and 21.
A military man, who declined to give his name, said there were also sightings last Jan. 24 and last Saturday in the same barangay.
No reports on sightings of armed men, though, were received in Pitalo.
At the site in Barangay Pitalo, they found the burnt pole and coconut leaves at the base.
The site is located three kilometers away from the highway.
Transco linemen and employees worked overnight to replace the burned wooden pole with a lightweight metal tower about 40 to 50 feet tall.
Explosion
Bantilan said each tower is worth P55,000, including the installation.
One of the wooden poles that had been eaten by termites will be temporarily supported by another wooden pole until it is replaced with a metal one.
Past 6 p.m. Monday, an explosion was heard near the Transco lines.
Jenina Villarin, a resident of Sitio Lakaran, told Sun.Star Cebu that she went out of the house to check what happened and saw that the post was already on fire.
She did not notice anybody since the post is two kilometers from their house.
"What I saw was the post burning from the bottom up. There was a lot of smoke," she said in Cebuano.
Jitters
San Fernando Mayor Lakambini Reluya, for her part, will ask the Cebu Provincial Police Office and Transco for a report on what happened so they can make a good assessment.
Reluya asked the San Fernando Police Station to stay vigilant and for barangay captains to immediately report to her office sightings of unfamiliar faces so they can verify if these are "legitimate" visitors or not.
Robert Go, a past president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the incident will scare away business owners, especially foreigners who own businesses in the south.
Go said extortionists have been bothering companies like the Taiheiyo Cement Corp. and the Apo Cement Corp. for some time.
He did not elaborate.
"Who (of these investors) will come to Cebu if they are scared?" said Go.
Eric Mendoza, president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, condemned the incident, which he said was tantamount to economic sabotage.
"Whether it was done by rebels or by ordinary criminals, police and local officials must work together to solve it," Mendoza said.
Fred Escalona, executive director of Philexport Cebu, said that what happened (in San Fernando) was bad publicity for Cebu.
"We have launched Cebu as a peaceful investment area and this promotion might be jeopardized by this incident," Escalona said. (EOB/JST/JGA/Sun.Star Cebu)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Bacolod. (January 30, 2008 issue)
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