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Saturday, October 01, 2005
7 Citom men in sabotage fired
By Rene H. Martel
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Cebu City’s traffic system went haywire in the past week because it was allegedly sabotaged by disgruntled City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) personnel.
Citom, though, averted disaster by deploying enforcers and repairing the system.
The stunt proved disastrous, however, for seven Citom employees who were dismissed on the suspicion that they were behind the trouble.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña ordered them fired last Thursday for “sabotage.”
The move followed the discovery that the “personality programs”— embedded in microchips inside traffic control boxes at 78 intersections—were erased Friday last week. The programs make sure traffic lights are synchronized.
As a result of the loss, Cebu City’s traffic lights changed simultaneously. For example, vehicles at all four ends of an intersection would get a go signal all at the same time, instead of one after the other.
“Initially, all investigation results showed it was sabotage. We suspect it’s an act of revenge,” City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said.
Talisay men
Five of the Citom men were sacked for alleged “moonlighting” by installing traffic lights in Tabunok, Talisay City last May.
One had his dismissal reconsidered, only to be fired again last Thursday along with two more personnel over the traffic system mess.
Fernandez made it clear the dismissal had nothing to do with the men being Talisay City residents, since the executive department did not even know their exact addresses.
The services of some Cebu City Hall casual workers were terminated because they reside in Talisay City. Mayor Osmeña has an ongoing squabble with Talisay officials over that city’s claim over part of the South Reclamation Project.
Arnel Tancinco, Citom executive director, said good thing they found the original programs for the 93 microchips, which Citom started using when the disruption was discovered.
However, the City’s traffic system will return to normal only after the original personality programs are reformatted according to the actual situation in each intersection.
‘Sabotage’
No cause for alarm, though, because Citom is doubling its effort and is on top of the situation, Tancinco said.
“There are indications of sabotage. We’re looking into that,” the mayor told reporters yesterday.
Tancinco, in a separate interview, said he only knew that five Citom personnel, including the traffic control center officer-in-charge, were removed for an undisclosed reason.
One of them was forgiven but was later relieved along with two traffic control center personnel, after Citom learned about the missing personality programs.
But Fernandez said the mayor ordered the dismissal of all seven personnel. Their release papers are currently with City Hall’s Human Resource Department office.
Tancinco said they discovered the problem when Citom personnel installed a traffic control box at the junction of Juana Osmeña and Escario St.
No personality
The system would not respond, which made them suspect it could have been “grounded.” When they checked the microchip, it was without the personality program.
Citom immediately contacted the distributor, which explained the program would be missing if somebody opened the box, removed the microchip and deleted it.
Or, Tancinco was told, the one who opened the box used a magnet to erase the program.
Tancinco said he immediately contacted Fernandez, who ordered Management Information Computer Service (Mics) personnel to diagnose the problem. Mics came up with a similar opinion.
Tancinco said they initially found 45 to 48 traffic control boxes without the personality programs. He believes, though, that all boxes had their programs wiped out, resulting in the erratic traffic signals.
Metro plan
The traffic system in Cebu City was part of the Cebu Traffic Engineering and Maintenance project for Metro Cebu, including that in neighboring cities of Talisay, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu.
The project was started in 1988, finished in 1995, and turned over to Cebu City for maintenance, Tancinco said.
In Talisay, particularly Tabunok, and in Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, Tancinco said they found nothing wrong in the systems there.
Tancinco said four of those dismissed for allegedly installing traffic lights in Talisay City were traffic signal maintenance personnel.
The other three were assigned in the traffic control center.
Tancinco said that as Citom executive director, he has no reason yet to suspect that the seven indeed “sabotaged” Citom, even though majority of them had a grudge against City Hall.
However, the seven were held responsible because they were in the position to notice that something was wrong with the traffic system, yet they did not inform Citom officials about it.
NBI checks
Also, the traffic control center officer-in-charge is the only person who has the keys to the traffic control boxes, which were opened so the microchips containing the personality programs could either be tampered or removed.
“The programs were removed. We don’t know whether these were kept or thrown away,” Tancinco said.
Fernandez said the National Bureau of Investigation is looking into the situation to determine the motive of the perpetrators and to establish whether the seven could be criminally liable.
(October 1, 2005 issue)
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