By Gerry Gorit
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, (PNA) -– Local law enforcers had arrested the alleged “brain” in the stealing of “telephone cable wires” who worked as a contractor for a local telecommunication company here, police said on Thursday.
Senior Police Officer Dominador Datahan said that Raffie Jude Ranin of Barangay Macabalan, Cagayan de Oro City, has been an object of surveillance for the past months after reports that the suspect (s) was tagged as the “mastermind” behind a series of unsolved cable wire theft in the city.
Datahan said that a composite surveillance team of various telecommunication companies spotted Ranin on Thursday morning together with two others on board a truck with plate number MDK 464 along the Bulua highways here.
The truck’s registration was later traced to a certain Lorenzo Cruz of a construction company in Talomo, Davao City.
He said that a member of the composite team, a lineman from the Misamis Oriental Telephone Company (MISORTEL), was almost run over by the truck driver who tried to speed away when Ranin was accosted.
The lineman grabbed Ranin while the two other suspects run away, Datahan said.
Initial investigation disclosed that Ranin has a PLDT “access control pass” as an authorized PLDT contractor.
Daniel Valbuena, PLDT’s outside plant technical man, said that Ranin was not a PLDT employee. He said that the “pass” was issued only to authorized PLDT contractors.
Fernando Vincent Dy, MISORTEL supervisor, said that Ranin’s group was the main suspect in cable thefts that have adversely affected the operations of the local telecommunication companies here.
He said that MISORTEL has recorded seven cable thefts totalling 350 meters of cable wires, including an expensive main cable worth P2,300 per meter or a total cost of P700,000 in September alone.
Valbuena also told police that some of the 50 meter cable wire with an estimated value of P150,000, recovered from the suspects was owned by the PLDT.
The local telecommunication companies had expressed alarm over widespread cable wire theft here in the past saying the sudden cut-off of telephone communication has adversely affected the operations of businessmen and the local economy.
Datahan said that both Dy and Valbuena have filed charges against Ranin and two other companions with cable theft and economic sabotage here.
He said that the recovered cable wires, the truck, and other equipment were submitted as evidences.