Panay Electric Company (PECO) hit back at telecommunications firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) for accusing it of “lying.”

The power distributor, in a letter dated November 19, 2019, said it did not attribute the 571 pole fires to PLDT.

The letter was addressed to Rene Lescano, PLDT vice president for Visayas. It was signed by Marcelo Cacho, head of PECO’s Public Engagement and Government Affairs, and two other officials of the power company.

“We merely stated that of the reported 709 pole fires from 2017 to 2019, only 138 of these were PECO-related. With that logic in mind, the remainder of the pole fires must belong to a telco,” PECO said.

Lescano earlier called Cacho a “liar.” “It is not correct to say that the more than 500 posts are ours. We have very few wooden poles compared to theirs,” he said.

The PLDT official blamed the electrical wires of PECO for causing the pole fires. 

According to Lescano, their messenger wires “are without voltage, made of steel and serve as tension to their copper and fiber cables and connected to the ground for lightning protection.”

PECO insisted that one of the most common causes of pole fires is short circuits in telecommunication equipment attached to its poles.

“This occurs when a linkage is created between telco lines and/or messenger wires and PECO’s secondary, service lines and/or pole groundings. This can happen, especially, when telcos install pole clamps without insulators on PECO poles for their messenger wire, and this uninsulated clamp touches PECO’s pole grounding wire,” it explained.

PECO attached in its letter a sample voltage test of a telco messenger wire that has come in contact with PECO secondary line. “The voltages were 157V, 156V, and 70V respectively.”

PECO requested PLDT to install insulated pole clamps in all its facilities.

“We would like you to submit within 15 days a timeline in which you can install insulated pole clamps for all your attachments on PECO poles,” it said.

PECO also called on PLDT’s contractors “not to bundle your wires with the PECO wires as this may casue fires.”

The power distributor also told PLDT to “immediately remove your facilities from our old poles” and to “review your [wiring set-ups].”

It said several areas in the city “have extremely low hanging wires that are mistaken to be PECO wires and are a danger to the community.”

“We have surveyed these and they do not belong to us. We have experienced multiple instances wherein our line teams have had to correct leaning or fallen PLDT poles that are blocking roads and creating traffic. While we readily do these jobs in the interest of public safety and uninterrupted traffic flow, we hope you can provide teams to maintain and troubleshoot your own facilities,” it added.

PECO also invited PLDT to attend the next Iloilo Utilities Group meeting on Nov. 27 after almost two years of absence.

“These areas have extremely low hanging wires that are mistaken to be PECO wires and are a danger to the community. We have surveyed these and they do not belong to us. We have experienced multiple instances wherein our line teams have had to correct leaning or fallen PLDT poles that are blocking roads and creating traffic. While we readily do these jobs in the interest of public safety and uninterrupted traffic flow, we hope you can provide teams to maintain and troubleshoot your own facilities,” it added.

PECO also said that PLDT “lacks emergency line teams to resolve issues.”

“We would like to again bring to your attention your lack of available line teams to attend to emergencies caused by your leaning and/or fallen poles,” PECO said.

“We have experienced multiple instances wherein our line teams have had to correct leaning or fallen PLDT poles that were blocking roads and creating traffic,” it lamented.

PECO also invited PLDT to attend the next Iloilo Utilities Group meeting on Nov. 27.

“You have not been to our meetings in almost 2 years; the other members of the other group may have concerns to relay to you in light of the challenges and opportunities posed by the many development projects in Iloilo City,” it said.IMT