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Friday, June 06, 2008
Another Transco bomb attack foiled
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Authorities thwarted Thursday a bomb attack at the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) sub-office in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat province, police said.
Sultan Kudarat police director Suharto Tocao said an improvised explosive device fashioned from a 105-millimeter mortal shell was planted at the back portion of the Transco compound in Barangay New Carmen in Tacurong City, which is less than 100 kilometers from General Santos.
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"The damage would have been huge had it exploded. That explosive is powerful," Tocao said.
The Transco facility in Tacurong should be highly secured since inside its compound are transmission lines and other electric power equipment.
At least two Army tanks were stationed at the compound a few years back.
The police official said the bomb was discovered past 6 a.m. by Transco employees and was diffused at around 8 a.m. by responding bomb experts.
Tocao directed the Tacurong police station to conduct an in-depth investigation on the incident.
He said the situation is now normal in Tacurong and that bomb experts from the Army's 601st Infantry Division have taken custody of the explosive device. The device will be used in determining the identity of the group behind the attempt.
Tocao said they still do not have any names of possible groups or individuals who could have put the bomb in the compound.
The failed bomb try against Transco came at the heels of a series of bomb attacks against its transmission towers in different parts of Mindanao as confirmed by a company official.
Manuel A. Hamoy Jr., Transco-Southwestern Mindanao department manager, said six transmission line towers in Mindanao were toppled due to bomb attacks since last week.
Reports said the attacks could have been motivated by extortion but Hamoy denied this. "We haven't received extortion demands from any extremist or extortion groups," he added.
One of the recent explosions hit two transmission towers connected to independent power producer Southern Philippines Power Corp of the Alcantara Group in Alabel, Sarangani.
Meantime, Emmanuel D. Abellanosa, Transco-Mindanao operations and maintenance vice president, appealed to the public to bear with power interruptions caused by the power load shedding scheme being implemented by the company.
He explained that the load shedding would be done as a protective measure, specifically to prevent the overloading of Pulangi-Kibawe 138 kilovolt lines 1 and 2.
The Systems Operations Group of Transco announced the implementation of the emergency scheme recently.
Abellanosa said the scheme successfully attained the desired condition and effectively balanced the Mindanao power grid.
He said the recent load shedding was a move needed to correct the unavailability of a 138-kv line that was damaged during the bombing of Tower 40 in Sarangani Province last May 27 and of Tower 50 in Lanao del Sur on May 30, 2008. (BSS/Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (June 6, 2008 issue)
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