DAVAO CITY (PIA) -- Unsightly and unsafe.

The days of so-called “spaghetti” wires and cables in Davao City are now numbered with the implementation of the anti-spaghetti wire ordinance.

The Davao Light and Power Company, in partnership with the City Government of Davao, started this Sunday, Feb. 4, the implementation of City Ordinance 0354-23, series of 2023, also known as the Anti-Spaghetti Wire Ordinance.

The inaugural start to the implementation of the anti-spaghetti wire ordinance was held at the stretch of Rizal Street (from Pelayo Street to CM Recto).

Spaghetti wires are above-ground utility wires and cables that are tangled in a complicated mess which are considered as eyesore and pose hazards.

The ordinance was authored Councilor Diosado Mahipus Jr. and co-authored by Councilors Bonz Andre Militar and Jessica Bonguyan.

“We crafted this anti-spaghetti wire ordinance para naa tay designated posts kung asa ta mag criss-cross so dili ta muadto from this post padulong sa pikas post, isa lang tanan asa mutabok ang mga wires (We crafted this anti-spaghetti wire ordinance so that we will have designated posts where we can criss-cross the wires. We will not just put the wire from this post to the other post. The post will pass in one post),” Militar said.

The implementation of the ordinance will entail the removal of clustered poles, dead and inactive wires aside from installing wires and brackets.

Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC) president and chief operations officer (COO) Rodger Velasco said that of the wires hanging at the posts 50 percent or more are considered junk as they are not used or inactive.

“Some of these wires belong to the DCTS, the Davao City Telephone System and some are copper wires which are no longer used as the telcos are using fiber now,” Velasco said.

The DCTS is a defunct local telephone company known by Dabawenyo old-timers as the “white line.”

Velasco said some of the DCTS wires are still hanging at some of the poles across the city.

The DLPC president said the project is a highly cooperative endeavor that also involves the partnership of telecommunication companies. The ordinance initially encompasses major thoroughfares of Davao City and will later include barangay and subdivision roads.

Velasco said the project is among the first in the country and would serve as a model for other cities wanting to clean up their messy web of spaghetti wires.

“Ang among pagtoo pero dili mi sure, though based sa nadunggan namo kami ang first sa Philippines, ang anti-spaghetti, naa gyud siya’a corrider na assign, color-coding sa wires (What we believe but we are not sure, though from what we heard we are the first in the Philippines to have this, the anti-spaghetti, we have assigned corridors and color-coding for wires),” he said.

He added that the anti-spaghetti wire ordinance complements the ongoing Davao City underground cabling project.

Claveria and San Pedro Streets have underground cabling in place, while the Magsaysay Avenue underground cabling is ongoing. (RGA/PIA Davao)