New law to penalize cable theft

MANILA, Philippines - Illegal tapping of signals provided by cable television (CATV) network and destruction or removal of cable internet facilities will be penalized under a law to be signed by President Aquino soon, a lawmaker said yesterday.

Taguig City Rep. Sigrifido Tiñga, chairman of the House committee on information and communications technology, led the adoption of Senate Bill 3345 as amendment to House Bill 00709 authored by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.

The move hastened the approval of the measure in both chambers of Congress.

Senate Bill 3345 or the Anti-Cable Television and Cable Internet Tapping Act of 2012 has been passed early this year and is awaiting Aquino’s signature, Tiñga said.

The lawmaker said cable providers incur about P6.3 billion in losses annually due to cable theft.

“With the proper safeguards, aside from subscribers getting better service and reception, the provider will be able to quickly recover investment cost, which they in turn will be able to use in improving services like going digital, adding more content and other value added services,” he said.

The bill also prohibits recording, reproducing, distributing, importing or selling of any intercepted or received CATV system/network signals for commercial purposes without the authority of the concerned CATV or cable internet service provider.