Miriam ready for battle on proposed anti-billboard bill

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago is ready to debate with billboard owners regarding her anti-billboards bill when Congress resumes session next month.

"I foresee that this might turn into a bloody battle because naturally I don’t expect the major advertisers who are making at least P2 billion out of these billboards every year to take this lying down," she said.

Senate Bill 1714, the Anti-Billboard Blight Act of 2006, has been certified as urgent by President Arroyo following the collapse of several billboards in the aftermath of typhoon "Milenyo" two weeks ago.

"It’s not easy for a President to fight against big business especially when she’s trying to keep the economy on the rise," Santiago said. "But still President Arroyo showed magnificent courage in ordering that the law should be followed."

Santiago said that she expects Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. to start the debates on the measure in order to pave the way for its immediate passage.

"I am fully prepared to be crucified once more by very, very powerful and very rich adversaries, but this is a crusade that someone just has to pick up," she said.

"We can’t just allow our country to turn into billboard country."

As the bill’s sponsor, Santiago said she has to take the cudgels for the people, particularly the poor who are the primary victims of any damage caused by billboards.

Santiago said existing laws regulating the use of billboards should be strictly enforced while awaiting the passage of the Anti-Billboards Bill into law.

"The Civil Code is a very old document, and one of its main provisions there is the prohibition of things or structures like billboards that could constitute a public nuisance — anything that represents a potential injury to the public or that damages and offends and annoys our sense of culture," she said.

"So we are protesting against the billboards, not only because they endanger the very lives and safety of Filipino citizens, particularly the poor.

"It is not only their danger to the lives and limbs of poor people but also the ‘uglification’ that they have brought to Metro Manila as a result of which Metro Manila became one of the ugliest and silliest capitals in the world," Santiago said.

The Anti-Billboards Bill seeks to ban billboards on highways where they obstruct or obscure the view of motorists or pedestrians, residential areas, any public property like streets and highways, telephone or utility poles; and roof of any building.

No to indiscriminate dismantling — OAAP

Meanwhile, the Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines (OAAP) warned the Department of Public Works and Highways against indiscriminate dismantling of billboards, especially those covered by documents and those erected on private land.

Claro Llave, OAAP chairman, said due process must be observed before bringing down billboards as the action might infringe on the rights of billboard owners.

"What we want to emphasize here is that the authorities must first send the concerned owners a notice and a chance to be heard because that is what the law says," he said.

Llave said the DPWH has no "blanket authority" to indiscriminately dismantle billboards despite the power granted to the agency by Administrative Order 160 to regulate the billboard industry.

"Before declaring a billboard structure is unsafe, it would be reasonable if the government will present first a document to confirm the findings that the structure was indeed unsafe," he said.

Llave said the OAAP does not object to the tearing down of billboards that pose hazard to the public, especially those on MRT stations, lampposts, overpasses, waiting sheds, and those within roads.

Corporate responsibility tops the OAAP’s agenda, and that it strictly follows a code of ethics which puts public safety over profits, he added.

Although the OAAP’s members comprise only about a third of the total number of billboard companies in Metro Manila, it is common for them to deny requests of advertisers to set up billboards, especially if it violates the law, Llave said.