Southern RP blacked out by rebels

Southern RP blacked out by rebels

PHILIPPINES: Moro separatists blacked out the southern third of the Philippines in overnight sabotage attacks, leaving about 18 million people in the dark for hours, officials said on Thursday.

Electricity supply was restored to most of Mindanao island by Thursday as the government fired up emergency generating stations to temporarily replace baseload plants disabled by the toppling of transmission pylons overnight Wednesday, they said.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas blew up at least five steel transmission towers before midnight using improvised explosives from mortar shells on Wednesday, knocked out the key Agus hydro-electric power complex outside this city.

No casualties were reported in the attacks, which blacked out the key Mindanao cities of Davao, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, Butuan and Malaybalay, said Max Adiong, operations chief for Mindanao of state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor). --AFP