Still there. Spaghetti wires of telecom firms form a canopy of disorder above passing motorists on corner Don Gil Garcia and Llorente Streets in Cebu City. The cables are located lower than the Veco power lines. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)
Rama tells 8 firms: Fix wires or city will fix them at your cost
As Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama marks his 61st birthday today, he will be checking on the pledge of public utility firms to clear the city’s streets of dangling wires and hazardous poles.
The deadline falls on Oct. 28, his natal day.
If they don’t comply, he’ll have to make good on his earlier threat to revoke business permits, and let another party remove the “eyesores” and send the bill to the owner.
At least six firms had promised in writing last July 22 to solve the perennial problem by today or else “allow the Mayor of Cebu City to expose the utilities’ insensitivity, non-compliance, irresponsibility and lack of concern.”
“I have to call a meeting with telcos and they have to tell me where they are now. I will bring a chainsaw,” Rama told reporters yesterday.
“I’m not joking. Because that’s what I told them, that if you cannot do what you committed, then I will cut them (posts and wires) down. I have men from the Parks and Playgrounds Commission. We will cut it so that they will know we mean business,” Rama said.
In a press conference, Mayor Rama said he expects telcos and utility firms to report to him within the week or by Friday at the latest on their progress.
The firms include the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) in the Telco TIC, Globe Telecom, Telecphil, Cebu Catholic Television Network (CCTN), Bayantel, Visayan Electric Co. (Veco), Eastern Telecom and SkyCable.
NOT Enough attention
Asked if he expects 100 percent compliance from telcos, the mayor said he’ll just wait for their report.
“There’s always such a thing, if all can be done, then (do) everything. But if all cannot be done, there’s always something, which is better than nothing,” he said.
The mayor said the company should honor their word.
City Engr. Jose Marie Poblete, who heads the city’s Technical Infrastructure Committee (TIC), said the private firms will present their accomplishment report to the mayor this week.
City Councilor Nestor Archival Sr., who heads the council’s committee on utilities, said there was no “substantial progress” yet on the promises made.
“The problem, I think, is that they don’t give the problem enough attention,” he said yesterday.
Proposed
Archival said he is fine-tuning a proposed ordinance requiring all telcos and utility firms to bundle their dangling wires at a standard height within six months from the passage of his ordinance.
This will be submitted to the council in the first or second week of November.
Under City Ordinance No. 1894, which was passed 15 years ago, utility firms have to fix or bundle their wires and eventually transfer them underground.
Archival said he understands that burying the wires underground entails a huge cost of about P75 million for one kilometer of wires.
Veco pioneered this by placing their power lines underground in Osmeña Boulevard from the Capitol to Fuente Osmeña. Phase 2 which will cover the next half of the boulevard to the downtown area.
Collapsed
“If we really push for that, what happens is that utilities, especially Veco, the cost will be charged to us (consumers).. It’s under their charter,” he said.
The perennial problem became a top agenda in July, when 13-year-old Ralph Bureros was killed by a PLDT utilitiy post that collapsed on him after a passing truck snagged overhead wires in McArthur Boulevard in barangay Tinago, Cebu City.
Poles can hold up wires and cables of different utility firms under an existing sharing agreement but no firm acknowledge ownership in this case.
Veco said the dangling wires were below their power lines and did not belong to them.
Maintenance
The incident prompted privilege speeches by Archival criticizing the “neglect” of utilities.
The mayor called the utilities to a meeting and got them to commit it writing to to remove dangling wires and hazardous utility posts by Oct. 28.
They promised to remove redundant, rotten and leaning utility poles.
The firms signed the document in the presence of Rama, Poblete and City Administrator Lucelle Mercado.
Poblete said he saw for himself the bundling of wires along D. Jakosalem St. near the Basilica del Sto. Niño.
He said the area used to be cluttered with dangling wires and now it’s cleared. This should be part of regular maintenance, he said.