Army intel tags rebels in tower blast

By Rey Anthony H. Chiu

Tuesday 17th of July 2012

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 17 (PIA) -- Four members of the rebel movement are under close military intelligence monitoring for their alleged role in the bombing of a power tower in San Miguel, Bohol on June 24.

Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Representative Major Josue Coberte shared this information during the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC-7) meeting on July 12 in Tagbilaran City.

Coberte said residents of Sitio Caseyay, Barangay Camanaga, San Miguel town were awakened by a loud blast in the early morning of July 24.

He said the bombing was the second rebel incident involving power transmission towers in less than a year here.

Succeeding crime scene investigations said perpetrators used a sizable amount of improvised explosive device enough to buckle the leg of a newly erected National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) tower no. 60, Coberte said.

Coberte reported intelligence reports gathered as early as March said a key official of the contracting company erecting the NGCP towers received phone calls from a man who claims to be a negotiator of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CNN).

The same intelligence reports said the caller allegedly demanded revolutionary taxes over areas where the power transmission lines pass.

The Central Command officer also shared that military intelligence operatives have gathered reports of ammonium nitrates and blasting caps being shipped from Talisay Cebu to Tintinan Island in Ubay last June 6.

A popular fertilizer, ammonium nitrate is also a key ingredient for bombs and explosives. The shipment was allegedly intended to blast NGCP towers and the Inabanga-Danao dam construction, AFP said.

Military intelligence agents also said an undetermined number of fire arms arrived in Clarin from Negros Oriental but were immediately split and shipped to Catigbian and San Miguel towns, when those shipping were intercepted.

Sugbohol Task Force Commander Colonel Allan Martin said that while Cebu and Bohol were declared insurgency-free, there were very strong moves from the CNN to reestablish the rebel movement.

On the development of the bombing, more patrols have been intensified in vital installations while more intelligence operatives have been fielded to identify the culprits said Colonel Martin.

Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto said he has directed barangay leaders where these towers are located to secure these installations from any more acts of rebellion. (MBCN/RAHC-PIA7, Bohol)