By Uriel Quilinguing, Contributing Editor . ELECTRICITY in four provinces in Mindanao tripped off 10:13 am yesterday after a steel pylon collapsed to the ground in Tangkal town, Lanao del Norte, a power transmission company said. Elizabeth A. Ladaga, spokesperson of National Grid Corporation of the Philippines - Mindanao, said an emergency manual load drop (MLD) was implemented to prevent overloading of remaining 138 kilovolt line due to the sudden power outage. This, after the Balo-i-Aurora 138kv line (Tower #60) in Barangay Poona, Tangcal town of Lanao del Norte was “toppled due to intentional pilferage of transmission line parts.” The NGCP reported that the power transmission company immediately coordinated with authorities to secure the area and to identify those behind the sabotage. “Any form of sabotage to transmission lines and structures only serve to increase the burden of the public, which must suffer through service interruptions when towers are sabotaged,” the report stated. Ladaga said that they are also appealing to community, local and national government leaders to help identify the perpetrators of sabotage and prevent power interruptions. Yesterday morning’s power outage affected Lanao del Norte Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Laneco), Misamis Occidental EC, Inc. (Moelci) 1 and 2, Zamboanga del Sur EC (Zamsureco) 1 and 2, and Zamboanga del Norte EC (Zaneco) service areas. Power lines in these places were restored after three to eight hours. As of 8 last night, the Aurora-Calamba 69kv line of Moelci 1 and 2 was restored from MLD about 6:32 p.m.; Laneco’s Aurora-Kapatagan 69KV line was energized 8:01 p.m. from 3:48 p.m.; and Zamsureco 2’s NagaMin-Malangas 69KV line was activated at 7:08 p.m. from 3:51 p.m. Ladaga clarified that the power supply in Polanco-Roxas 69kv line under Zaneco, which was cut at 6:31 p.m. and that of Aurora-Magangon 69kv line of Zamsureco 1 which was out at 7:09 p.m., are still under emergency MLD, as of this writing. MLD is a process of deliberately removing pre-selected loads from a power system in response to an abnormal condition in order to maintain the integrity of the system.