Saturday, August 02, 2008 Cable theft hotline mulled
THE Cable Theft Task Force -- a coalition of government, media, and private companies in Cagayan de Oro -- is set to launch a direct hotline number so that the public could report cable theft cases.
Dubbed "Sumbong 255 Bantay Kawat Kable," the hotline is one of the multi-pronged initiatives of the task force to abate the prevalent theft of copper wires within the city and in the neighboring areas, said Teodoro Buenavista Jr., regional director of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
A dedicated, direct hotline number would boost public reporting and police response to cable theft cases, added Buenavista.
According to him, with the hotline, anyone can now easily punch in 255 if someone is about to steal, on the act of stealing, or has stolen electronic cables in their neighborhood.
For this purpose, Buenavista said two telephone lines will be installed at the city police headquarters in Maharlika compound to be provided by telephone firms Misortel and Philcom.
Underscoring the role of village officials in deterring cable thieves, the taskforce also plans to give out vests to barangay tanods. The vests, printed with the hotline number, will be distributed coinciding with the launching of the project, slated in the middle of the month.
Local-based telecommunications companies have already lost P20.2 million from cable theft since the first incident in 2003, according to the data provided by NTC-Northern Mindanao.
The Misamis Oriental Telephone Company (Misortel) incurred the biggest loss totaling P12.1 million from 2003 to the first quarter of this year; Philcom came in second with P6.5 million, the data show.
During the first quarter of this year alone, thieves have already carted off P2.9 million worth of cables from Philcom, Misortel, and Smart Broadband Incorporated.
NTC said this year's figure does not include the undeclared losses incurred by the government-owned Telecommunications Office (Telof) and other private telcos.
In 2007, private and government-owned telecommunications companies lost P4 million to thieves, NTC-Northern Mindanao record shows.
