Military tags BIFF in NGCP tower bombing

PIKIT, North Cotabato - The military is certain the brigand Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) was behind the bombing Tuesday night of a transmission tower of the National Grid Corporation (NGCP) in nearby Barangay Galakit in Pagalungan, Maguindanao.

The toppling of NGCP's Tower 26 in Barangay Galakit caused more than two hours of power outage in Maguindanao, in parts of North Cotabato and in all of the 37 barangays in Cotabato City.

Lt. Col. Audie Edralin, commanding officer of the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion, confirmed on Wednesday morning that gunmen toppled down the tower number 26 of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, at Barangay Galakit using improvised explosives fashioned from mortar rounds and incendiary powders.  

Edralin said the tower, carrying high-tension cables connecting the affected areas to hydro-electric plants in Lanao del Sur and in Bukidnon, is located at a rice field near a national highway straddling through Pagalungan and neighboring North Cotabato towns.

"After receiving information that there was a loud explosion in the area, we dispatched a team to investigate and it was found out the tower was indeed bombed," he said.     

Local officials and barangay leaders said there are indications that the outlawed BIFF was behind the attack.     

The BIFF warned last week to intensify its harassment of peasant communities and military installations in Central Mindanao in retaliation for the Army’s takeover on January 4, after two days of ground and artillery offensives, of its stronghold in Barangay Midpantakan in Gen. S.K. Pendatun, Maguindanao.     

Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the 7th IB and local members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit in Pagalungan and North Cotabato’s Pikit and Kabacan towns have been directed to conduct patrols in surroundings of steel power pylons along thoroughfares and in remote barangays.     

“We also call on the public to be vigilant. We need the support of the general public in securing these facilities,” Petinglay said.