Cebu City Councilor Jerry Guardo says a telecommunications company has agreed to donate 200 posts to Cebu City. | Delta Dyrecka Letigio (file photo)
CEBU CITY, Philippines — A telecommunications company will be donating 200 posts to Cebu City that should replace broken one caused by Typhoon Odette.
Councilor Jerry Guardo, chairperson for infrastructure, told CDN Digital on February 26, 2022, that the telco, Converge, has agreed to replace 200 broken posts in the city and donate the new ones to the city government.
Guardo said that Converge had started deploying teams to the major thoroughfares to replace the posts regardless of who owns the posts, Globe or PLDT/Smart.
Once the posts are installed, these will be turned over to the city government, of which the city government can now choose which telcos can use the poles.
The councilor said that the city would allow all telcos to use the new poles to avoid redundancy and reduce the number of poles along the city’s streets.
Guardo said that pole redundancy has been common in the city because competing telcos do not allow the use of their own poles by their competitor.
The city has attempted to unify the poles, but the telcos refused to spend on unified poles, that is until Converge came to the picture.
Guardo said that this had led to further problem of spaghetti wires or tangled utility wires, which might have been the cause of the massive damage during Typhoon Odette.
“I am in talks with Converge. Paspas kaayo ilang restoration. We now have an agreement, mo install silag 200 posts, and in fact, nagsend na silag more teams. Whether it is owned by Globe or PLDT, we have now given authority sa Converge to replace broken posts,” said Guardo.
(I am in talks with Converge. Their restoration work is fast. We now have an agreement that they will install 200 posts, and in fact, they have already sent more teams. Whether it is owned by Globe or PLDT, we have now given authority to Converge to replace the broken posts.)
This new development has been welcomed by Task Force Ratsada, the special team formed by Mayor Michael Rama to clear the broken posts and spaghetti wires by Charter Day, February 24, 2022.
The deadline has passed and Guardo admits that they could not finish the whole major thoroughfares of the city simply for lack of manpower and the sheer extent of the damage.
As of February 26, 2022, Guardo said they had cleared 60 percent of the major thoroughares in both North and South Districts.
The problem lies with the fact that most telcos are busy restoring services to different areas in the city and cannot help in the clearing.
Guardo said that he was now confident that the clearing would be hastened because the telco had joined in the restoration.
He hoped that soon, all major thoroughfares would be cleared of these broken posts and spaghetti wires and they would move unto the interior portions of the city.
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