Focus on cable wire thefts

I received a report yesterday that the phone lines to Sagay City were down. It seems wire thieves took down a long stretch of PLDT lines leading to northern Negros Occidental.

That occurred the very day Rep. Charlie Cojuangco was reported by local newspapers are launching a multi-pronged campaign against the rampant theft of telecommunications, electrical cables, a wirings being stolen.

Thefts of these items, pointed out Cojuangco, disrupt public utility services, such as telephone communications and electric service. These often have far-reaching economic impacts, the solon observed.

Cojuangco recently met with Vice Governor Isidro Zayco, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, and provincial police chief Charles Calima as well as Bacolod police chief Pedro Merced to map out plans on how to address the problem. Cojuangco cited how economic activities such as call center operations which need to be on-line globally are disrupted because somebody cut a few kilos of wires.

"We are compromising our reliability as global player because someone needed a few pesos and gets it illegally," he pointed out. There are indications that the problem is becoming bigger because of the involvement of syndicates who, many times melt the wires to prevent identification of their origin.

Until a major incident results from these series of uncontrolled thefts, Cojuangco observed, the general public seems apathetic to calls for public support in the campaign against wire thieves.

Well, as I had earlier pointed out, the police, too, must do their part in this drive. They could very easily identify the fences to whom the wire thieves sell their stolen items. They must no longer temporize with these unscrupulous buyers. It is pure common sense that these thefts will ebb if there are no more buyers. And who buys these cables and wires? Simple. Unscrupulous merchants who don't care where what they are buying comes from so long as they can make money out of them.

Time for all to be serious about this threat to our economy.

***

It is good that Susan Roces came out saying that she is not interested to run for political office in the near future.

Susan, who came to Bacolod over the weekend to grace the La Consolacion College homecoming, also received her award as distinguished alumna in the field of Arts, truly deserved by one who returned to the glitter of stardom after a long hiatus. But Susan will always find herself courted to run for office especially now that she has once more become a name-star.

That's the danger to her persona. No doubt about it, she can win if she wants to. But she must pay the price for that. There will be a lot of heartaches and pain for one whose introduction into the realm of politics was the disappointing presidential bid of husband, Fernando Poe.

It will take a lot of will power to be able to wade through a gamut of well-wishers and tempers who will try to convince Susan that she will be a winning candidate. Unfortunately, there are a lot of pitfalls in such an enterprise.

But then, Susan has repeatedly displayed that she has a mind of her own. She had rejected that attempt to drag her into the political arena earlier. And she need not be dragged again into the mud of partisan politics.

***

MNLF supreme Nur Misuari was once more at his fiery best in addressing the crowd of MNLF sympathizers in Davao City. But there was something in his message - "we should not allow peace to be enforced on us."

That's something that government authorities should seriously ponder Who is ramming down peace the throats of the MNLF? And for with, Misuari gives another message to government - the OIC expects him to attend their Sept. 9 meeting in the Middle East.

There must be a hidden meaning to this twin pronouncements. Abangan ang kasunod.*

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