Billboard wreckers face raps

Liquor manufacturer Destileria Limtuaco is preparing charges of malicious mischief and destruction of private property against two Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino senatorial candidates — former Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and movie actress Boots Anson-Roa — for tearing a portion of the controversial "kinse años" billboard for Napoleon brandy.

Company lawyer Bonifacio Alentajan said the two Senate bets acted with "brazen display of hoodlum tactics" when they stripped the word "kinse" from the 8x4 meter Nappoleon billboard along Roxas Boulevard in Parañaque City yesterday.

Lim used a firetruck to reach the 50-foot high overhead billboard. Anson-Roa stood behind him.

The billboard carries the controversial catch phrase, "Nakatikim ka na ba ng kinse años" that refers to refer to the age of Napoleon brandy.

Alentajan said aside from the strong evidence being gathered against Lim and Anson-Roa, Destileria is also set to file a disbarment case against the former mayor.

Alentajan pointed out that as a lawyer himself, Lim should know better than to act like a tyrant. "He is an aspiring lawmaker who is himself a law breaker."

"We are saddened and shocked by the obvious political publicity stunt pulled by the two opposition senatorial candidates," Olive Limpe-Aw, executive vice president of Destileria, said in a statement.

"We have always held them in high esteem and we respect their opinions with regard the highly-sensationalized controversy involving one of our products. The least we expect of these aspiring public officials is to respect due process and give us our day in court," she added.

Alentajan said the criminal charge against Lim would be filed on Thursday.

"That was a crazy act. If they had issues, they should have gone to the proper venue," he said.

He added that the attitude of Lim and Anson-Roa is reason enough not to elect them in the May elections.

Lim for his part said that the ad was " a derogatory statement that offends decency and good customs and is considered a crime against public morals."

According to him, the company could be charged with grave scandal and immoral and obscene doctrine under the Revised Penal Code.

"The publication will serve no other purpose but to satisfy the market for lust and pornography. It suggests the seduction of a 15-year-old virgin," he explained.

Meanwhile, Destileria officials told the Department of Justice there was nothing wrong with their billboard and radio commercials for their 15-year-old product. They demanded P26 million in damages as they filed perjury charges against the lawyers and children’s rights advocates who lodged a criminal complaint against them in connection with the advertisements deemed obscene and offensive to women and minors.

Destileria assailed lawyers Katrina Legarda, Erid Mallonga, Minerva Ambrosio, Cristina Sevilla and other children’s rights advocates Maria Isabel Ongpin and Ray Salvosa for making false testimonies or accusations against Destileria officials responsible for the advertisements.

"The advertisements which appeared in billboards and aired in radio stations do not in any way contain immodest and indecent matter nor tend to deprive and corrupt the minds of those into whose hands the publication might fall or whose minds are open to such immoral influences," Limpe-Aw said in her complaint-affidavit.

In a related development, women’s group Gabriela said support for the pullout of the brandy ad is quickly snowballing.

"It is good that support for the pullout is gaining ground, Coming from politicians, this is a positive development," Gabriela president Liza Maza said in a phone interview. — With Mike Frialde