Four men arrested for stealing cables

Four men suspected of stealing cables from a cellsite in barangay Malubog, Cebu City, were arrested by alert tanods last Friday dawn.

The suspects, all residents of Mandaue City, were identified as Marlon Reyes, 32 of barangay Maguikay; Roldan Montederamos, 30, of barangay Cubacub; Argie Retobado, 22, of barangay Casuntingan and Johnwine Morales, 21, of barangay Cabangcalan.

They were already indicted yesterday for theft charges before the City Prosecutors Office

The tanods who apprehended them were Jennes Arresgado, chief tanod of Malubog, along with Rolando Camingawan and Amado Nacua.

Recovered from their possession were two sacks of bronze wires, both insulated and uninsulated, worth P108,000 allegedly stolen from underground culverts.

These cables are connected to the cellsite to serve as the ground wire so that the electric current from lightning would be directed to the ground to prevent damage to the cellsite.

According to SPO3 Gualberto Fuentes of the Service Security Group, two alleged robbers are still at large and were identified as Jessie Gonzaga of barangay Bakilid, Mandaue City, and Christopher Abing, of barangay Bakilid, Mandaue City.

They were the ones who allegedly cut the cables while the four arrested were assigned to sell them to junkshops in the lowlands.

One of the tanods said prior to the arrest, they saw Montederamos sleeping in a waiting shed near his Kawasaki motorcycle. They were not convinced when he said he was waiting for passengers because there were three crash helmets on the motorcycle.

Montederamos was invited to their barangay hall for questioning because of reports of rampant cable theft in the area.

A few hours later, a taxicab arrived and parked near where Montederamos was seen sleeping and three men later identified as Montederamos' companions came and started loading two sacks into the cab.

The tanods stopped the taxicab and found the stolen articles in its compartment, which the suspect initially claimed to be bananas.

However, the unidentified taxi driver was not included in the arrest because the representative of the telecommunication company believed he was just flagged by the three men and told they wanted to transport bananas.

But Fuentes does not believe this saying taxi cabs do not just wander in the mountainous part of the city looking for passengers.

Last month, the Philippine Association of Private Telecommunications Company Incorporated based in Manila asked Malacañang to do something about the proliferation of cable theft in the country. The group said they already lost 800 kilometers of cables to thieves. - Edwin Ian Melecio/BRP