Friday, October 30, 2015

Blast topples 2 NGCP towers in Marawi City

By Froilan Gallardo on October 30 2015 10:48 am

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/30 October) — Unidentified men bombed two towers of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines in Marawi City cutting off electricity generated from the Agus 1 and 2 hydro plants from the Mindanao grid.

Beth Ladaga, NGCP regional communications officer in Mindanao said towers 19 and 20 were toppled by the bombing that occurred around 9:20pm Thursday night causing power loss in several areas of the Mindanao grid.

Ladaga said the toppling of the two towers caused a 150-megawatt deficiency as electricity produced by Agus 1 and 2 was isolated from the entire Mindanao grid.

“Our technicians will start restoration work as soon as the area is secured by the army and police,” she said.

Lieutenant Virgilio Dorotan, a company commander of the Army 65th Infantry Battalion said the soldiers and policemen only managed to enter and secure the blast site in Barangay Patani in Marawi City at around 5am Friday.

“We found the two towers toppled on its side but we have already secured the area for the NGCP repairmen to begin their work,” Dorotan said.

He said they still had no idea who exploded the bombs as Army ordnance specialists were still in the blast site to check the evidence left.

The village of Patani is located one kilometer away from the Marawi-Iligan highway.

The bombing came two days after the NGCP released a press statement complaining that an “uncooperative landowner” in Marawi demanded money and refused entry to their repairmen.

The NGCP said at least 30 megawatts of electricity produced from the Agus 1 hydroelectric dam became isolated from the Mindanao grid because of the incident.

Bombings of electric towers operated by the NGCP have occurred several times in Mindanao. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews) source

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