First the billboards, now the aerial cables

The devastation wrought by the recent typhoon "Milenyo" had once again glaringly exposed some of our society’s most nagging concerns. It was bad enough that sizeable parts of the metropolis were again flooded despite the boasts coming from certain quarters that they have unclogged our sewerage systems. But the fact that Metro Manila, aside of course from several other provinces, lay helpless without electricity and water supply for several days made the situation even worse. This only goes to show how seriously changes needs to be instituted to our country’s infrastructure.

Trees and billboards torn down by the typhoon severely damaged power and telecommunications cables, effectively paralyzing Metro Manila and other areas. This has led some concerned citizens to voice out their worries. Former Manila Councilor Cesar T. Lucero Jr.. for one, has called for the implementation of an ordinance requiring aerial cables and wires, including telecommunications, to be placed underground. Lucero stated that under the ordinance, any person, firm, board or corporation, or any government entity shall be required to place underground its electric or telephone cables or wires. Should these entities fail to undertake the job, the city shall take over, the cost of which will be charged against the person, firm, board or corporation concerned.

Lucero averred that to ensure the implementation of the project, the amount of P500,000 (five hundred thousand pesos) or whatever amount as may be necessary, will be appropriated out of the unappropriated funds existing in the city treasury to serve as revolving fund to finance the placing of wires, cables and other lines underground, without prejudice to the imposition of the penalty prescribed upon the person, firm, board or corporation, or government entity that failed to undertake the work involved and the reimbursement of the expenses incurred by the city government in undertaking the project, Lucero concluded.

This is long overdue. With the MMDA’s Bayani Fernando and majority of our city mayors barking out strict order to regulate the use of billboards, the placing of cables and wires underground should merit equal importance. Aerial cables and wires are subject to environmental adversities, including wide variations of temperature, strong winds and other factors. When damaged, these can prove to be hazardous to the populace.

The United States and other countries in Europe have long practiced the undergrounding of cables and wires. Some Asian countries like Singapore and Japan have also started adopting this same measure. They have realized that there are clear and distinct advantages in having all urban power and telecommunications lines underground. Here in the Philippines, the undergrounding of cables and wires as a national policy would generate very significant benefits not only to the public, but the private sector as well.

Critics, of course, will argue that these will entail a lot of time and money. This perception may be correct, but perhaps this is where lies the Filipino’s greatest weakness. We are great thinkers, however, because of our hastiness in solving even the simplest problems, we sometimes neglect to look at the bigger picture. If you think about it, if we had only looked back and studied what our foreign friends had already done decades ago, then it probably wouldn’t be necessary to write this article now.