A meeting is being called today by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama to give public utility firms a “final warning” about their duty to fix dangling and spaghetti wires.
Sadly, it took the death of a 13-year-old boy, Ralph Bureros, to prod officials and utility firms to take another look at this recurring problem.
BACKSTORY: Veco electric pole falls, kills Tejero boy | Boy died, girl injured in electric post collapse
So far, no one has taken responsibility for the tragedy.
The collapse of a concrete PLDT pole in barangay Tinago, Cebu City on July 17 hasn’t been settled as to who exactly are the culpable parties.
The incident recorded by a closed-circuit TV camera showed a pole falling onto a barbecue stand where Ralph and two girls were waiting for their food orders. A shaft of wood from the broken table impaled Bureros. Two other girls suffered minor cuts.
Witness reports of a truck speeding by and snagging the overhead wires of the pole have not led to any name of the driver. The wayward truck was the immediate cause of the pole’s collapse.
But it was the lowlying wires that were the ultimate cause and proof of neglect of one or more private business operators.
The Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) already declared that no electric wires were involved. If that’s taken as a fact, the identity of the owners of the dangling strands can only lead to a cable TV company or a telecommunication firm or combination of these enterprises.
The incident surfaced a little-known arrangement.
A pole may be owned by utility A, but the wires and cables of other utilities B, C, D, etc. can be mounted on them, making them co-owners under a pole-sharing agreement signed by the parties beforehand. It’s imperative to identify whose wires were involved.
RELATED STORY:Veco to fix, cut dangling utility wires if needed | PLDT owns fallen pole; Veco lines share use of utility post
The boy’s family was given P15,000 by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) with a promise of aid from Veco as well, both as “humanitarian assistance”, not compensation — a legal nuance that shields both corporations from any admission of guilt.
When City Councilor Nestor Archival took the floor last week to give a privilege speech, he gave the tragedy its historical perspective. It’s been 14 years since the City Council passed an ordinance creating a coordinating committee to address this same problem of dangling overhead wires that pose a public hazard.
What happened to the Utility Lines Installation CoordinatingCommitte? They used to met regularly.
The repsonse wasn’t fast enough because another pole collapsed last Saturday, injuring two women in barangay Lahug, again the result of dangling wires.
Both PLDT and Veco are invited to an Aug. 5 session of the Cebu City Council to shed light and propose solutions to the problem. To be fair, Veco started its program to transfer power wires underground two years ago yet.
But all utility firms just have to care enough for public safety to respond to dangling wires, whether the wires belong to a competitor or the home office.
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