EDITORIAL - Sleeping on the job

How quick and easy is it to climb up a lamppost, dismantle large metal-braced lamps, clamber down and run away with the loot? Easy enough for thieves to do this about 20 times along busy Roxas Boulevard, and so far, to get away with it. From Pasay to Parañaque, most of the posts that now have missing lamps are in areas that are crowded at all hours of the day and night.

Those areas also happen to have police outposts, so presumably there are cops assigned there. If the cops were conducting regular patrols, which they should, and performing a modicum of what was expected of them, they wouldn’t have worked out a sweat apprehending the lamp thieves. Government electrical maintenance personnel would have worn uniforms, and even uniformed individuals should have been asked for IDs, especially if they were dismantling lamps that were working just fine.

If the cops, plus the barangay personnel who are supposed to assist them, were caught napping in the pancitan or noodle house, they should at least be able to find the missing lamps. If they take the time to get to know the communities where they work instead of spending their working hours sitting on their behinds, they should be able to find the lamps or identify the likely fences. Those lamps are too large and conspicuous to adorn a thief’s shanty. The lamps are sold either to some moneyed wacko with a fetish for street lighting, or, more likely, to a fence who resells the lamp parts.

Fences encourage thievery to flourish. Electric cables are pilfered, causing blackouts in many communities, because fences buy the copper wires. Burglars cart away not just jewelry and appliances from homes but also aluminum ladders because these are bought by metal traders. Car side mirrors, windshield wipers, tire rims and other parts are stolen because there are ready buyers for them. Even cell phones, for which some muggers will kill, are stolen because there are many fences for the items.

These fences are not hard to find, if cops will just do their job. A bit of vigilance would have stopped those lamp thefts. The Philippine National Police and Department of the Interior and Local Government should hold the police and barangay officials accountable for those missing lamps on Roxas Boulevard.