STRESSED residents of sitio Camanggaan in barangay Mayombo, this city, together heaved a sign of great relief afternoon of June 13 upon switch-on of their long delayed electric power service thru a 100-kilovolt ampere transformer installed by the Dagupan Electric Corporation (Decorp).

Decorp, which had refused to reconnect power to the area following the non-cooperation of residents in identifying thieves who stole the company’s 75 KVA transformer shortly after the May 17 typhoon, finally installed the replacement transformer after barangay officials and other citizens tagged six persons responsible for the theft.

Police said barangay residents, faced with the prospect of not having electricity for an interminable period, finally tagged the six culprits from their barangay, including a barangay kagawad, who carted off the 300-kilo transformer from a downed electric post after Cosme’s onslaught.

When police traced the lost equipment to the house of barangay Councilman Roberto Rebudal, much of its wirings and content had been taken off and only the transformer’s case was recovered in the premises. The copper wire coil was later found at a junkshop in barangay Lucao.

Aside from Rebudal, the other suspects, all from Mayombo, now facing charges for theft, according to Police Chief Dionicio Borromeo, are Maximo Garcia, Gerry Escanio, Xander Escanio, Gerald Fernandez and Dominador Ocson.

All of them are at large, Borromeo said. A separate case for violation of anti-fencing law was filed against the junkshop owner.

Decorp Operations Manager Augusto Sarmiento said the company has been notified of the development in a formal report from Mayombo Barangay Captain Ming Guadiz.

Sarmiento earlier said he believes the thieves used a boom truck to detach and haul away the huge transformer. He said it would have taken at most two hours to detach the transformer from the fallen electric post because it was fastened tightly.

It was impossible for anyone in the barangay not to notice the thieves at work during that length of time, he theorized.