THE public utility firms that pledged to bundle all dangling wires in Cebu City by Oct. 28 said they are making “good progress” on their commitment but the work is not 100 percent done.
Engr. Cayetano N. Cruz, team leader of Telco Technical Infrastructure Committee (TIC), said they submitted a report to Cebu City Engineer Jose Marie Poblete and Councilors Roberto Cabarrubias and Nestor Archival.
“We detailed the areas where we have completed wire bundling from August to September. We will submit another progress report by February because we still have a lot of ongoing bundling activities,” Cruz said.
Cruz represents Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) in the Telco TIC, which includes Globe Telecom, Telecphil, Cebu Catholic Television Network (CCTN), Bayantel, Visayan Electric Company (Veco), Eastern Telecom and SkyCable.
The areas where wire bundling has been completed include Gen. Echavez Steet; Legaspi Street; Gen. Junquera Street; M.C. Briones Street behind City Hall; Magallanes Street; Bonifacio Street (from Sikatuna to D. Jakosalem); a portion of the Sinulog route; R.R. Landon Street; P. Gomez Street; Plaridel Street; F. Gonzales Street; F. Jaca Street in Inayawan; street along Quiot, Pardo; Sikatuna Street; Don J. Llorente Street; along sitio Tsangge in Sambag 1, Urgello-Private road; D. Jakosalem; Sanciangko Street; Borromeo Street; P. del Rosario Street; and, Leon Kilat Street beside Elizabeth Mall.
“We are now working on the streets near Taboan and Carbon market. This is a continuous activity for us,” he said.
Cruz said they formed a seven to 10-man team under PLDT to work on the bundling of wires day and night.
“We usually work more at night to avoid causing traffic in the streets that we work on. We also decided to have them work day and night to fasttrack work and clean up the dangling wires especially those that pose high danger,” he said.
Cruz said the work has kept them busy since five years ago due to pilferage.
“Now this is another reason to really make sure our wires are neatly bundled and kept. It also makes the street look neat and more beautiful which is what the city really wants,” he said.
Aside from the PLDT crew, Cruz said other telcos sent their crew to help out.
Veco reputation management manager Jill Verallo said Veco completed the draft of Emergency Response Guidelines based on the joint manifesto they signed together with the telecommunication companies.
“We will call for a press conference on November 12 to show the guidelines. It details what things should be done when incidents involving dangling wires are concerned,” said Verallo.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama met with public utility service firms days after the death of 13-year-old Ralph Bureros in July.
Rama required the telecommunication companies and Veco to sign an agreement on July 22 to clear the streets of dangling wires by today, October 28, which is also his birthday.