New wires for city’s lampposts

About P267,000 worth of electric wires were turned over by the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) yesterday for use to connect and light up lampposts installed along Osmeña Boulevard.

Sebastian Lacson, Veco senior vice president and chief operating officer, turned over the wires to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and philanthropist Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung in a press conference.

Yeung chairs the Beautiful Cebu Movement Foundation (BCMF) which was tasked by Rama to work on the beautification of Escario Street, Mango Avenue, B. Rodriguez Street and N. Bacalso Avenue.

The beautification is part of the Cebu City government’s preparations to win the bid for hosting the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) pre-summit activities.

Lacson said the new wiring is part of Veco’s contribution to rid Cebu City of unsightly spaghetti wires. Another Veco initiative, the underground cabling project is also in the works.

But Rama told Lacson that they should meet first before the project is implemented.

“The less the obstruction, the bigger the sidewalk will be,” Rama said.

Veco was supposed to start its P70 million underground cabling project on Friday to cover one kilometer of Osmeña Boulevard from the junction of Bos Coffee across Cebu Doctors Hospital to Fuente Osmeña circle.

Lacson said the diggings will be done in a portion of the affected sidewalk for the installation of underground cables.

This will later be restored, he said.

Rama inspected the switch gears and pad mounted transformers found at the Asia Town IT Park and the Cebu Business Park which are now adopting underground cabling.

Yeung said she is happy with the Veco project because this will rid the city of unsightly spaghetti wires.

“The concerns of the mayor are perfectly valid and will be taken into consideration,” Lacson said.