By Atty. Egay Uy
NO, this does not refer to the music industry's billboard of top hits but to billboards that have sprouted all over the city, and mostly illegally at that, they say.
In the committee-of-the-whole meeting convened by the city council last Thursday, the matter of illegally constructed and erected billboards that both obstruct and amuse motorists were discussed and their legality revisited.
That meeting literally found the halls of the city council jampacked with city councilors, advertising companies, and resource persons who attended either physically or virtually. In attendance were representatives of the DPWH, the OBO, advertising firms, and several others, myself included. Councilor Romy Calizo ably presided over the meeting.
I learned in that meeting that the matter was investigated in aid of legislation as an effect of the special report of Councilor John Michael Seno. True enough, billboards that we find everywhere and truly need a second look.
It was revealed that there are more than 150 billboards in the city but only seven of them are covered by business permits. The advertising firms say that they resort to erecting billboards without permits because the process of securing permits takes a lifetime. Well, that may be true before the effectiveness of the ease of doing business law.
This notwithstanding, the outdoor advertising firms have no legal, not even moral, reason to keep on erecting billboards without complying with established regulations. No person should commit an illegal act just because his neighbor is committing a crime. It's as simple as that.
The problem of illegal billboards is also because of the ineptness of the DPWH whose convenient often repeated and abused excuse for not enforcing its own billboards regulations circulars is “we have no police power.” What bull! Tell that to the marines, they say.
Then there is that other convenient excuse of serving three notices before they could decisively if they ever do that, act on illegal structures. What?! A recipient of a notice from the DPWH will definitely not lift a finger because after all, he will expect to receive two more notices. And after the third notice, the recipient will not expect them to take any action because “they do not have police power.” How inept can an agency be!
I said obstruct and amuse because to an observant motorist, some of those billboards even praise politicians for doing things as if they own the country (and to be in the good graces?), and egging them to run as if they were rulers running an inherited dynasty. Amusing indeed.
Well so much for that. Just take care of those illegally constructed billboards.
