Cable thieves cut NPDO phone lines

Normal operations at the Northern Police District Office (NPDO) were disrupted for the second day yesterday after unidentified cable thieves cut and stole telephone lines in the vicinity of the police headquarters last Friday.

"Basically our normal operations are affected," Superintendent Eric Reyes, District Intelligence and Investigation Division (DIID) chief, told The STAR.

Reyes said that apart from downed telephone lines at all NPD offices, essential communication equipment such as fax machines, Internet and computer e-mails were also rendered unusable.

"But communication with other police units go on as normal for we also have our (handheld) radios plus the mobile phones," Reyes said.

He said the NPDO weekly report was not completely transmitted to the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) due to the telecommunication problem.

He said that the office of NPD director Senior Superintendent Raul Gonzales has already coordinated with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and was assured of immediate action.

Godofredo Cabrera, NPDO electrician, said that a check at the Caloocan City PLDT office revealed that apart from the NPDO, large parts of the Dagat-Dagatan area and parts of Malabon City were also affected.

He said he found out about the telephone problem when he reported for work at the NPDO at around 8 a.m. last Friday.

Reporters based at the NPD press office also had a hard time sending their articles to their respective offices due to the telephone line problems.

Police sources said this kind of problem is so rampant in the northern metropolis that the NPDO receives, almost on a daily basis, complaints about stolen telephone cables, not only of PLDT, but also from other telecommunication companies.

Police said that brass wires collected from the cut cables could be sold to junk shops from P150 to P200 a kilo.