MICHAEL MEDINA
Online news editor
OZAMIZ CITY: A barrage of complaints from residents is enough to prompt Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog to call a meeting with junkshop owners the other week to tackle the rampant theft of telephone and cable wires, water and electrical meters in the city.
While the local office of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) is the first to air its concern over thieves cutting their telephone lines, it appealed to Parojinog to initiate a campaign against these thieves and slap junkshop owners with violation of PD 1612 or the Anti-Fencing Law of 1979.
Fencing is defined in PD 1612 as the act of any person who, with intent to gain for himself or for another, shall buy, receive, possess, keep, acquire, conceal, sell or dispose of, or shall buy and sell, or in any other manner deal in any article, item, object or anything of value which he knows, or should be known to him, to have been derived from the proceeds of the crime of robbery or theft.
PLDT’s action came about as it offered a reward system to counter the thefts, after it claimed it cannot anymore tolerate readily replacing the lost lines, only to find them stolen again.
Rony Ortega, PLDT business specialist said they are giving P1000 reward for recovered items and P2000 for anybody who catches telephone wire thieves.
So far, there have been ten incidents of thefts in Ozamiz involving telephone wires, four for cable wires, 46 for water meters, five electric meters and a stretch of electrical wires lining the Circumferential Road, this city.
Local water utility company Misamis Occidental Water District (MOWD) has announced last month that they are continually implementing the clustering of water meters to counter the thefts.
Nestor Rosal, PLDT’s storage keeper, disclosed that for this month alone, thieves were able to cut their wires in Bañadero, Sto. Niño Village, Maningcol Highway, Bernad Subdivision and parts of the city proper.
These incidents, Rosal added, caused disruption of telephone services to over 600 subscribers of PLDT in the concerned areas.
Like Mayor Parojinog, he believes the rampant cable thefts may have been spurred by the high cost of bronze and c
opper wire being paid by unidentified junkshops in the city, which costs about P200-P300 per kilo.In a meeting with the media, Parojinog identified some of the suspects as those coming from the nearby Tangub City and Tambulig, Zamboanga del Sur.
Jemilo Pelimer, general manager of the Misamis Occidental Electric Cooperative Inc. (MOELCI), in a telephone conversation with Misamis Probe, called on Parojinog to go against these thieves and punish them to set an example.
PLDT is likewise informing the public to report without delay their concerns involving the thefts through Cellphone Nos. 09195587795, 09287434778, 09184981102 and or 521-1800.