The Deadly Cables of Barangay Tatalon

Electricity--or rather, its lack--is a big problem among the many residents of Barangay Tatalon, Quezon City. Most of the residents are poor and could not afford the convenience of electricity. Many of them therefore resorted to illegal electric connections. They connected "jumper" wires to the legal connections and stole electricity. Those with legal connections are very angry about this practice, as they assume, and rightly so, that the stolen electricity was being charged to their account. They reported the rampant illegal connections to the Manila Electric Company (Meralco).

The Meralco, with the aid of some policemen, raided Barangay Tatalon. In the jungle of wires and cables, it was almost impossible to find which wires are legal and which are illegal. After a day's work laboriously cutting the illegal connections, the Meralco grouped the legal wires together and fastened them in strings. This way the illegal connections would be easily spotted as they would not be inside the strings that had been installed. The Meralco hoped that this will mitigate illegal connections.

Quite clever, indeed, but not without its problems. As it happened, by stringing the wires together, the Meralco created a volatile situation. Each of the wires can overload (short circuit), and every wire can be affected like a chain reaction, starting with a spark and an explosion--and then fire. The fire trucks will have a hard time entering the fire zone because of the very narrow alleys within the Barangay.

The stringing also affected the height of the wires and cables. Due to its combined weight, the wires now dangle dangerously low and within reach of children playing in the streets. Wires that had been accidentally peeled can electrocute to death any human being. This is one of the accidents just waiting to happen. But so far, no one had been electrocuted...yet.

Barangay Tatalon has already had a history of frequent fires because of this problematic cable and wires situation. In 2006, for example, some 100 houses were burned due to the rampant illegal connections within the barangay. And just recently, last December, 2009, another huge fire hit the barangay with hundreds of families losing their homes.

Children can easily reach out to the electric wires above, hanging dangerously low.



The barangay captain complained that his house no longer looks nice and beautiful

Water pipes and electric wires strung together in this darkened alley