P100K FOR INFO ON WIND FARM BOMBERS

CAMP JUAN, Laoag City Feb. 23 – Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos has offered a P100,000 cash reward for any information that would lead to the arrest of those responsible in the bombing of two wind farm transmission towers in Brgy. Tadao, Pasuquin last Friday, police authorities reported.

The reward money will come from the provincial government fund, they said.
The steel towers, both measuring 100 meters high, are used to transmit electricity from a $220-million wind farm in Pagudpud town, which is joint venture of AC Energy Holdings, UPC Philippines Wind Holdco and PhilippineAlliance for Infrastructure.

S/Supt. Jose Melencio Nartatez, Jr,. OIC provincial director fof PNP-Ilocos Norte said that three possible motives are being investigated.

“(It was possibly) those who were lot owners who weren’t satisfactorily paid, employees of said company who were not paid of their services, and finally, it maybe perpetrated by the leftist, he said.

In fact, he said that the company received a demand or extortion letter from the NPA in separate occasions on the months of June and August last year.

He, however, said that the police then were not convinced that demand letter was from the leftist since it appeared fake.

Nartatez also revealed that after lifting the evidences from the scene debris, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) of INPPO and SOCO concluded that the explosives that were used were readily available in the market.

Supt. Leland Benigno, deputy director for operations of the Ilocos Norte Provincial Police Office (INPPO) theorized that the persons responsible for the blast have technical skills in explosives.

“Initial findings of the explosives and ordnance division of the Philippine National Police reveal that the destruction of the two transmission towers was caused by an improvised explosive device designed to cause high-order detonation,” Benigno said. (tsg)