2 TransCo towers bombed

Two transmission towers of the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) in Maramag, Bukidnon were bombed last Saturday, the military said.

Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Eastern Mindanao Command, said they are looking into the possibility that renegade Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels were behind the attacks.

But MILF deputy spokesman Khaled Musa, in a statement on the front’s website, belied this and accused the military of “resorting to all dirty tricks to demonize” the rebel group.

Cabangbang said the bombers used improvised explosive devices in attacking the two towers, situated five kilometers apart in Barangay Panadtalan. One tower was toppled, and the other, damaged.

An unexploded 81-mm mortar round was found at the base of Transco Tower 222, fueling speculations that the same type of explosive was used in bombing the other tower.

If the MILF was behind the attacks, Cabangbang said extortion was the likely motive and not to divert the military’s attention from the ongoing pursuit against rogue MILF commanders and their followers.

Maramag town, he said, is near the municipalities of Wao and Bumbaran in Lanao del Norte, where MILF commander Aleem Sulaiman, alias Commander Pangalian, is believed to have a stronghold.

The Army’s 4th Infantry Division has deployed its forces at the Lanao del Norte-Bukidnon boundary to prevent MILF rebels from staging attacks.

Meanwhile, two militiamen were wounded when suspected MILF rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at their outpost in Kiamba, Sarangani yesterday, Cabangbang said.