PROVINCIAL Police Director Alan L.M. Purisima has suggested to the giant telephone companies operating in Pangasinan to upgrade their telephone lines to the modern fiber optics if they want to rid themselves once and for all of the cable line theft problem.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) provincial director broached the idea when he talked to top officials of Digitel and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company recently about the rampant theft of telephone wires bringing big losses to the companies.

He said for as long as telephone wires are hanging overhead or out in open spaces, the criminal-minded, given the right opportunity, will steal these for instant profit.
Purisima said the thieves were after the copper inside the telephone cables that fetch a price of as much as P200 per kilo.

The group arrested by police in Binmaley last week was bringing the stolen, cut-to-manageable-length cable lines to a vacant lot in barangay Bacayao, Dagupan City where the rubber and plastic coating are to be burned in order to retrieve the precious copper inside for sale to ready buyers or “fences.”

The arrested suspect, Rosario, said he participated in only three incidents of telephone cable line thefts, one in San Jacinto and the others in Dagupan and Binmaley.

Purisima told newsmen that the stolen copper wires end up in junkshops in Bayambang, Dagupan and other parts of the province. Soon, these are brought to a bigger junkshop in Manila and eventually to a factory that recycles copper wires.