EDITORIAL - Partners in crime

When Tarlac and neighboring provinces are hit by torrential floods  which is sure to happen at least once this year, especially with a stronger-than-usual La Niña phenomenon expected  residents cannot blame nature. But they can blame thieves who have stolen flood sensors from five stations along the Agno River and its tributary in Tarlac since December. They can also blame the fences who most likely bought the sensors, worth millions of dollars, from the thieves for scrap metal at a few hundred pesos per kilo.

Fences are also to blame for the theft of electric wires, which has caused blackouts in several parts of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. Because there are ready buyers of scrap metal, thieves destroy street lamps and metal railings in public places. Instead of pushing carts to collect discarded tin cans, bottles and paper for sale to scrap dealers, crooks learn that they can make more money, and faster, by stealing aluminum ladders from households and selling these to fences.

For thieves to turn a profit, there must be ready buyers who ask no questions about the source of the item for sale. From SUVs to car parts, fences are thieves’ partners in crime who must be caught and punished. People have been killed for refusing to hand over their mobile phones to muggers. These crooks would not proliferate without ready buyers for the stolen phones.

Even if the stolen flood sensors are returned, restoring them will cost the government thousands of dollars, according to meteorologists, who warned that the thefts left about a million people without a flood warning system. Without the grounding rods, 30 towns along the Agno and its tributary could be inundated without warning, meteorologists warned.

Thievery, like any crime, thrives when the perpetrators see that they can get away with it. It doesn’t require genius to track down fences. Investigators can start with traders of scrap and recycled materials. If the floods bring misery to those involved in the theft of the grounding rods, it will be poetic justice. As good as poetic justice, however, is real justice. Those who have put the lives and property of a million people at risk must be caught and punished.