Fire destroys 4 electric towers, plunges Cotabato in 5-hr darkness

KIDAPAWAN CITY —A five-hour power outage plunged Cotabato province in darkness on Thursday evening after four of electric cooperative Cotelco's power towers were set on fire.  

Cotabato Electric Cooperative, the sole power distributor in North Cotabato, said Cotelco's power posts were torched on Thursday evening, and the incident caused the 5-hour power interruption that annoyed power consumers in its service areas.

But Cotelco General Manager Engineer Godofredo Homez said that the power interruption was beyond their control.

Also Homez said their linemen had difficulties locating the fire-hit posts that were located in a mountainous area going to Mount Apo.

An initial investigation showed that the affected power facility were intentionally set on fire, and that the incident is already under investigation.

“We already reported the incident to the local police. On our part, we are also doing an investigation,” Homez told GMA News Online in a phone interview.

Identifying the suspects would be difficult, the Cotelco official said, adding that the management had not received any extortion demands or threats from any armed groups.

Lala Doble, a teacher at the Kidapawan City National High School and a resident of Apo Sandawa Homes Phase-4, described the long brownout as “Black Thursday” as the whole city in total darkness.

Cotelco asks for understanding from social media basher, saying that the incident was beyond the firm's control.

“Our linemen are doing their best to bring back the power to your respective homes,” Cotelco Inc. said in post on its Facebook account.

Meantime Engineer Homez, asks the almost 20, 000 power consumers all over Cotabato province to help the cooperative in safeguarding its facilities to avoid power interruptions in the future.

“Please help us safeguard our posts in your respective areas. All of us were losers in that incident," he said. —LBG, GMA News