Miriam refiles anti-billboard bill, hits House

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago refiled yesterday the Anti-Billboard Blight Act even as she criticized some congressmen of derailing the passage of the measure that seeks to ban large billboards along major roads in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

Santiago said she will ask the Senate leadership to prioritize her bill that will impose stiffer penalties against violators who insist on putting up these huge billboards in major thoroughfares in Metro Manila and the rest of the country.

The Anti-Billboard Blight Bill of 2006 was passed in the Senate in the last Congress, however, it failed to hurdle the scrutiny at the House. Santiago lamented that it took the Senate over six months to prepare the bill.

“They want to water it down so that in effect there will be no anti-billboard law,” the visibly irritated Santiago said.

The Santiago bill also imposes an outright ban on: billboards on highways that obstruct  or obscure the view of vehicular or pedestrian traffic; billboards in residential areas; billboards on any pubic property such as streets and highways, telephone or utility poles; and billboards on the roof of any building. The proposed ban is effective immediately.

“Innocent human beings were torn from their lives and taken, never to return, from the bosom of their loving, bereaved families, simply because nobody dared to face the reality that we Filipinos are living in billboard hell,” she said.

She blamed the delay on the passage of the law to some congressmen whom she claimed were swayed by the lobbying of advertising firms and billboard makers whose profits will be adversely affected by the proposed law.

Santiago said she wanted to prevent another billboard accident similar to the incident that cause the death of one passing motorist when a huge billboard collapsed along EDSA in Makati at the height of Typhoon Milenyo last year.

“No amount of corporate profit can compensate for the lost of one human life,” she said.

Big billboards continue to proliferate and distract motorists particularly along EDSA.

“Namatay na ang mga tao eh…There are already quantifiable  statistics. Yan ang problema sa ating bansa, magaling lang ako if I am fighting graft and corruption in our country. But the moment my efforts impinge on the corporate profits, all of the sudden I am change image. That is what makes me so angry about this campaign of this billboard companies,” she said.

Santiago compared some congressmen to a talakitok fish which can be bought for a cheap price, to block the passage of certain bills. 

“If you can’t buy enough numbers of senators as a bloc, ‘di bumili sila sa House, mas marami sila para silang mga talakitok,” she said, eliciting laughter from mediamen.

Santiago was angry over the reluctance of advertisers and billboard manufacturers in accepting the provisions of her proposed law and branded the business executives as greedy corporate individuals.

“That is just plain corporate selfishness. Corporate greed masking itself in the high rhetoric of corporate executives and even going so low and to attack me personally,” said Santiago.

Under her bill, Santiago also wants to penalize violators and impose sanctions on billboard owners/advertisers in case of damages to property and loss of lives.

Santiago said there are enough provisions under the Civil Code, which provides that a billboard is a nuisance.  “We don’t have to wait for a new law to remove the billboards from hell,’ she said.

Last year, Santiago has written a letter to President Arroyo, recommending that the Santiago bill should be certified as urgent.

Santiago also wrote to then Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, to recommend the issuance of a memorandum-circular to all judges, prohibiting the issuance of TROs in cases involving the billboards.