Rey Anthony Chiu
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 13, 2012 (PIA) –Rousing its favorite trick to sow fear among the people it vows to defend, four members of the rebel movement have been under close military intelligence monitoring for their alleged role in the terroristic bombing of a power tower in San Miguel Bohol, June 24.
Major Josue Coberte of the Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines shared this information at the Regional Peace and Order Council Meeting which convened Thursday at the Bohol Tropics Resort, here.
The development came, twenty days after that fateful early morning of June 24 when a huge blast awakened residents of sitio Caseyay, barangay Camanaga, San Miguel town.
The bombing was the second terrorist incident involving power transmission towers in less than a year.
Succeeding crime scene investigations revealed that 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.
While crime scene investigators scouring the area declined to comment as to the identity or motives of the suspects in the bombing absent any official statements after the atrocity, rumors of a rebel terrorist hit was passed along intelligence circles and even reaching NGCP officials.
Major Coberte shared that intelligence reports gathered as early as March said a key official of the contracting company erecting the NGCP towers received phone calls of 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 Centcom 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.
These were then later transferred to Mabini and San Miguel towns.
Military intelligence agents also gathered that an undetermined number of fire-arms arrived in Clarin from Negros Oriental, but was immediately split and shipped to Catigbian and San Miguel towns, when those shipping it got spooked.
Sugbohol Task Force Commander Colonel Allan Martin admitted that while Cebu and Bohol were declared insurgency free, there were very strong moves from the CNN to reestablish the 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, according to Colonel Martin.
On his part, Bohol governor Edgar Chatto said he has directed barangay leaders where these towers are located to make moves to have these installations secured from any more acts of terrorism.