Do you know what “spaghetti wires” are? They are dangling cables that hang from electric posts. Some of them are so unwieldy and so heavy that they pull down the post they are connected to, causing it to tilt. Needless to say, they are unsafe and unsightly.

Because it is generally assumed that these wires are electric in nature, people blame Meralco every time a post is “overpopulated” with cables, and whenever it is already dangerously leaning to one side. Thing is, many of the wires are not of Meralco; they just squat wherever to serve the business of telco and Internet providers.

When I was in my teens—a long time ago, admittedly—Meralco poles were uncomplicated. They existed simply to help the electric company deliver, um, electricity. And then, around the mid-’90s, cable TV became a thing.

Here’s a true story: In 1996, I woke up one morning to find a cable TV company installing wires right in front of our house without the proper permit.

I proceeded to castigate the technicians, telling them to stop whatever they were doing. It was apparent that they knew they were not standing on legal grounds because they so panicked that one of them had a finger caught by a thick wire. Sadly for the technician, the incident completely severed his finger (as in he lost a digit).

That was my first encounter with unprofessional telco installers—those who did their job without securing the necessary papers.

As time passed, the wires abandoned the cable TV but gave way to the Internet. Today, the spaghetti wires that we often associate with Meralco actually belong to Internet providers.

With so many Internet subscribers everywhere, Wi-Fi providers do not choose where their business appears. They sprout anywhere. They do not care if their cables block traffic lights, for instance.

In February this year, CNN news anchor Richard Quest was in the country, and he was left wondering how we could safely live with these spaghetti wires. And as if by serendipity, he recorded his video near our office—on Pioneer Street, to be exact.

“Every time I see this, I just wonder how on earth does it all work,” Quest said. “But since the lights stay on and the Internet’s working, this all must make sense to somebody.”

The truth is that it doesn’t have to make sense. It doesn’t have to be accepted. It doesn’t have to be normalized.

These wires can topple electric posts. They can cause fires. They can contribute to traffic. And yes, they are bad for optics.

Thankfully, Meralco cares about these things. We’ve joined the company’s Anti-Urban Blight Operations, and have seen how difficult it is to get rid of spaghetti wires.

No less than corporate communications vice president Joe Zaldarriaga showed and explained to us the purpose of the campaign.

“This is in order to ensure the safety of the customers and the communities we serve,” he shared. “We will continue to take down illegal facilities that were installed on our poles to ensure these poles are safe. Why are we doing this? As we know, all of our facilities are located in areas where motorists traverse on a regular basis. So, we need to make sure that it’s safe for motorists.”

“For our VISOR friends,” Manong Joe added, “we’d just like to assure you that this campaign is targeted at motorists’ safety. And we will continue to implement this in the coming months and years.”

You know how we’re certain that Meralco truly wants to solve this problem of spaghetti wires? Because we’re aware that the company diligently monitors our Facebook page for reports of these dangling cables. We know the firm is serious about this, and that this is not mere marketing on the part of the electricity supplier.

In fact, Meralco encourages our readers to keep reporting leaning posts so it can promptly fix these, and also so it can remove unauthorized wire installations.

This is a tall order. And Meralco is all for it.