2ND CHANCE FOR TELCOS

Angry Rama wants dangling wires, rotten poles fixed on new deadline; utilities fulfill only 10% of promise for mayor’s birthday

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama last night fumed over a “less than 10 percent” accomplishment by utility firms which had promised to remove all dangling wires and hazardous posts  by his birthday.

Then he gave a new deadline for them to finish.

Mayor Rama called for a meeting with the technical infrastructure committee and representatives from the utility firms and telcos on Friday to get updates on their commitment to remove dangling wires, redundant posts. (CDN PHOTO/JOSE SANTINO BUNACHITA)

They have to report their “milestones” by Feb. 24 next year, the city’s Charter Day, and finish the work by May 1, about a week before the 2016 elections.

The assessment was made in a meeting he presided at City Hall with representatives of the Visayan Electric Company, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, Globe Telecom, and other utilities of the city’s Technical Infrastructure Committee (TIC).

One by one, each firm reported how far they’ve gone in bundling cables, removing dangling wires, replacing rotten or leaning posts and complying with  a city ordinance to transfer their lines underground.

Overall they reported “less than 10 percent” with some estimating 20 percent.

RALPH BUREROS

Mayor Rama asked about 13-year-old Ralph Bureros,  the boy who was killed by a PLDT concrete post that fell on him after a passing truck snagged overhead wires and pulled down the pole in barangay Tinago in July.

The accident was the wake-up call that had prompted Mayor Rama to call the utility firms to an emergency meeting three months ago and get them  to commit to an Oct. 28 deadline, his 61st birthday.

“Na unsa man ang bata?  Namatay. (What happened to the child?  He died.),” said Rama.  He cited Cebu Daily News’ follow-up interview with the boy’s father three months later wherein the anguished parent said the family still had an unpaid P8,000 funeral bill and that the public has forgotten all about the boy’s death.

“If you don’t pay for it, I’ll be forced to take care of it,” said the mayor, as  all representatives of the utility firms remained silent in their seats.

The Bureros family decided not to sue after Veco and PLDT paid initial financial assistance of P25,000.

No utility firm, however, has been clearly identified as the owner of the low-lying wires or cables.  Under a current pole-sharing agreement, there can be multiple-users from different utility firms.

In a handwritten pledge signed last July 22 in the presence of the mayor, the utilities had agreed to correct hazardous wires and posts, and that failure to  comply would mean a) revocation of their business permit and  b) allow the mayor “to expose the utilities insensitivity, non-compliance, irresponsibility and lack of concern.”

EXASPERATED

The mayor’s exasperation at the slow progress was clearly felt last night.

At one point he had his staff bring out four chainsaws. The equipment was placed on the meeting table and briefly turned on with a threat to use them on misplaced poles.

“Puro mo bakakon. Nianhi ko diri kay nisaad mo nako sa akong birthday. Ang inyong saad, wa ninyo nabuhat. Gusto jud mo masuko ko. Ang sabot, simple kaayo,” the mayor told the representatives.

(You’re all liars. I came here because you promised something for my birthday. You didn’t fulfill your commitments. You really want me to be angry. Our agreement was very simple.)

The committee first showed Powerpoint slides of before-and-after photos of certain areas where dangling wires have been bundled but the mayor said this didn’t show the entire picture.

Rama instead asked “How many percent have you completed?” before the utility firms could present their reports.

Veco’s Adrian Fabian said that overall, it was less than 10 percent of their commitment.

“I can’t estimate. Had we surveyed before we committed, we could have gotten (the data). This is just a representation on how much we achieved. It’s less than 10 percent for the overall,” he told the mayor.

The same figure was echoed by Cayetano “Dodong” Cruz of PLDT, Eduardo Castro of Bayantel and Ven Panimdim of Cebu Catholic Television Network.

Edlin De Los Reyes of Globe Telecom said he “guessed”  they achieved around 20 percent of their promise.

Other firms present were Telecphil and Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) at the roof deck at the 9th floor of Cebu City Hall’s executive building.

Each utility was asked to give a self-rating for completion of each of eight tasks stated in their pledge.

For the bundling of dangling wires, utility firms reported  50-75 percent accomplishment.

For the removal of redundant, leaning and rotting poles, they reported 70-90 percent completion.

For observing proper vertical clearance or height of the wires, all firms said they completed 100 percent except for PLDT which rated itself at 98 percent.

What they couldn’t do quickly was transfer their infrastructure underground, something Veco has pioneered with power lines in Osmeña Boulevard from the Capitol to Fuente Osmeña under Phase 1.

PLDT’s Cruz said he was  surprised by the three-month deadline to finish bundling cables by October when PLDT’s project from Capitol to Fuente Osmena alone took three months to finish beautification. It would take much longer to cover all of Cebu City.

ONE POLE ONLY

After noting photos presented of several posts supporting bundled wires, Rama said, ”I only want one pole. I don’t want so many poles. Do you want a pole in your home? I’m treating the whole

City of Cebu as my home because I’m the mayor. So that’s my standard, only one pole,” he said.

He asked if this was possible, then slammed the microphone on the table, when he didn’t get a clear answer.

He pointed out that this was already done in the area from the Capitol to Fuente Osmena Circle.

Finally, representatives of utility firms agreed to his request for a “one-pole” policy, to finish bundling dangling wires,  remove rotten wooden poles and observe proper height by next February.

The meeting was scheduled at 4 p.m. but Mayor Rama arrived at 6:30 p.m. It ended at around  9 p.m. with a birthday reception by the TIC for the mayor, complete with a buffet dinner and live band.

The mayor later apologized for his angry outbursts, saying he was “very passionate about things I have to accomplish.”

“Sorry if I have to make some emphasis. Even Jesus Christ (had to do so) when the temple was prostituted. My apologies to whoever are affected,” he said.