CEBU City Councilor Jerry Guardo said the challenge of Mayor Michael Rama to eradicate all “spaghetti wires” in the city by December is “doable,” and the country’s top telecommunication firms offered support to meet this goal.
During a meeting with the city’s Technical Infrastructure Committee on Monday, Oct. 10, 2022, Rama expressed his disappointment over the entangled wires that can still be seen in the city.
Rama himself had sustained a forehead injury after bumping into a dangling wire while walking, the City’s Public Information Office said.
Guardo, who chairs the committee on infrastructure, told SunStar Cebu Tuesday, Oct. 11, that the city government and telecommunication companies will field additional personnel who will be tasked with removing the spaghetti wires.
Currently, there is only one team that handles the removal of the dangling and idle wires, he said.
Guardo added that to achieve Rama’s goal, two more teams will be deployed to cover the city’s northern, central and southern areas.
“I think that is very doable, the challenge of the mayor... in order to achieve that target, we need to enforce additional manpower,” said Guardo.
The councilor clarified that the city’s spaghetti wire eradication program started right after Typhoon Odette (Rai) hit Cebu on Dec. 16, 2021.
City Hall is not spending government funds on this initiative since the clearing operation is part of the telecommunication companies’ (telcos) corporate social responsibility.
In separate statements sent to SunStar Cebu Tuesday, PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom said they are coordinating and supporting the goal of the Cebu City Government to remove all spaghetti wires.
Cathy Yang, PLDT and Smart Corporate Communications Group head, said their company has been in constant coordination with the Cebu City Government to clean up dangling wires throughout the city.
“As a reinforcement, we will be providing the city government with ladders to augment the city’s efforts to fast-track the initiative. We commit our full support; the success of this endeavor lies in the concerted efforts of all players involved,” said Yang.
Patrick Gloria, Globe’s director for external affairs-Visayas and Mindanao, said they support Rama’s timeline of removing all spaghetti wires by December 2022 to ensure public safety.
“We will help in the clean-up efforts and hope that the weather in the next few weeks and months will be favorable as this plays a major part in the entire endeavor,” said Gloria.
Gloria added that they would also like to call for a “concerted effort among key stakeholders, including all telco, electric and cable operators in the city to ensure the success of the mayor’s vision.”
Quennie Bronce, Visayan Electric’s reputation manager, said their electric wires do not contribute to the spaghetti wires.
Bronce added that the power distributor always offers assistance to ensure the safety of the people who are clearing up the entangled wires.