Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Cell site burned by Bohol communist rebels
By Mia E. Abellana
CEBU CITY -- Just weeks after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo shelled out P1 billion to eradicate the insurgency in two years, a cell site in Bohol Province was torched Monday night.
Services of Globe Telecom in five towns in Bohol Province were disrupted.
Nobody saw who torched the Globe cell site in Barangay Poblacion, San Isidro, Bohol, but police investigators are looking into the possibility that communist rebels were behind it.
About 30 cell sites, mostly owned by Globe, were attacked by the rebels in 2005 after the company refused to pay "revolutionary taxes."
Jones Campos, Globe's head of public relations, said the company pays only legitimate taxes to the government.
According to Inspector Samuel Gabuya, San Isidro police chief, no one witnessed the burning because the caretaker tasked to look over the cell site went home at 10 that night.
No explosion took place, which is why the cell site burned unnoticed.
Bartolome Aledon only returned at 6 a.m. Tuesday to find the cell site up in smoke.
Bohol Provincial Director Arturo Evangelista, in a telephone interview, said they were considering two angles.
One was that communist rebels were behind it.
They are not quick to conclude this yet, however, saying New People's Army rebels often used gasoline in torching cell sites and buses.
On Tuesday, police found firewood, cuttings of cogon grass and sawdust, apparently used to build the fire.
The perpetrators also dug a hole beside the interlink fence so they could enter the cell site. The site's panel board and cable were damaged.
Gabuya said these could no longer be used.
Aside from rebels, Evangelista said it was possible that angry subscribers were also behind the incident.
He pointed out that service was disrupted the whole day Sunday after a cable in one of its cell sites snapped, affecting prepaid subscribers in Luzon and Visayas.
Aside from Sunday's signal interruption, residents in the area often complained of a weak signal.
Gabuya told Sun.Star Cebu that his colleagues noticed the signal interruption before midnight.
They did not think this was strange because they often experienced signal interruptions in San Isidro, a hilly fifth-class municipality 32 kilometers from Tagbilaran City.
They only realized that the signal interruption was caused by the burning after Aledon appeared at the station to report the incident.
The cell site is not far from the police station.
Gabuya said it is only 700 meters from their office. However, it is in an isolated area and the next structure is 100 meters away.
Evangelista said he spoke with Globe officials in Tagbilaran City and asked them why they did not deploy security guards there.
He was told that the company categorizes a cell site by the volume of users it caters to. The San Isidro cell site is not considered a heavy-use cell site, which is why they did not deploy security guards there.
Aside from San Isidro, the towns of Catigbian, Calape, Tubigon and Antiquera were affected by the service interruption.
Evangelista admitted there were many rebels in the province, but said they have not received reports that these rebels would attack anytime soon.
Evangelista hopes Globe Telecom would secure all cell sites and not just those that serve areas with heavy usage.
While he acknowledged that they have a standing order to continuously look after the security of vital installations in their area, he said the primary responsibility of securing the cell site was with the company.
Also Tuesday, the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 called on the community to cooperate with the police in battling insurgency and other crimes.
Since July was declared Police Community Relations (PCR) month, PRO 7 is preparing several activities to reach out to the community.
Deputy Regional Director for Administration Ronald Roderos, in a press conference launching the 11th PCR month, described the insurgency as a major drawback to the country's economic growth.
He pointed out that after Malaysia and Thailand concentrated on and cracked their insurgency problems, they were able to take off economically, leaving the Philippines behind. (Sun.Star Cebu)
(July 5, 2006 issue)
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