|
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Thieves cut off 1,800 phone users
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO CITY -- Cable thieves victimized at least 1,800 subscribers of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Company in Toril.
Dondon Landeta, PLDT Visayas-Mindanao area protection division Davao team leader, said the still unidentified cable thieves cut about 45 meters of their copper cable in Lizada, Toril at around 9 p.m. on Friday last week.
Landeta said the pilferage affected 300 PLDT subscribers, which include banks, in the area.
PLDT estimated the damages to the cable wires and in economic losses to P400,000.
Thieves struck again at 2 a.m. on June 5, cutting off cables along De Guzman Street, also in Toril. Affected were 1,000 subscribers and damage was estimated at around P1 million in economic losses. PLDT officials estimate they would have to spend P300,000 to restore the cables.
While the thieves were able to cut the lines, they were not able to cart these off as the PLDT security team arrived in time.
Landeta said the cables have alarms that get triggered when unauthorized persons attempt to cut them. The alarms also have locators that enable PLDT personnel to pinpoint the location of the cables.
He said they were not so worried about the damages, but instead what bothers them is the impact of the theft on the economy.
Since January this year, PLDT suffered 22 cable pilferages in the city.
Landeta said the estimated economic loss brought about by the 22 incidents could easily run to P10 million.
Among the areas affected by cable pilferages include Talomo, Buhangin, Lanang, Catalunan Grande, Matina, and Mintal. Talomo area has the highest record with eight cable thefts followed by Toril with seven.
The biggest damage was in May 22 when robbers destroyed a PLDT fiber optic cable at the Bankerohan Bridge by sawing through the thick steel pipe covering.
PLDT manager Ben Gayte said the destruction of their fiber optic cable affected the areas of Bankerohan to Toril and Calinan, cutting off telephone system and Internet access for almost 24 hours.
Gayte said banks, hospitals, and other establishments that depend on communication and information technology incurred losses that run to millions of pesos.
PLDT coordinated with police authorities to stop the growing incidence of cable theft in the city.
PLDT asset protection division chief Celso Sison said the growing incidence of cable theft is already alarming.
Davao City Police Office Director Catalino Cuy said it is possible that a syndicate is behind the incidents.
He said cable theft is happening not just in Davao City but also in other parts of the country.
Cuy said the syndicate employs young thieves to do its dirty work and "export" the stolen cables outside the city for smelting.
Thieves responsible for the PLDT cable damage were well equipped with tools that could penetrate the thick steel pipe covering of the fiber optic cables.
Gayte said the thieves gained nothing since the fiber optic cables are worthless in the market.
He said the thieves must have thought that the cables were made of copper.
PLDT officials appealed to the public to help in protecting cable lines by immediately reporting to their hotline any incidence of cable theft in their area. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
(June 7, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
Arroyo, Cabinet members in communist hit list: letter