MMDA: Judge favoring billboard firms

MANILA, Philippines - The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) yesterday filed a motion asking for the inhibition of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 133 Judge Elpidio Calis for alleged bias in stopping the agency’s drive to remove billboards along EDSA and other major roads.

MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino said the agency also filed a motion to suspend proceedings on the hearing of the case filed against the MMDA by the Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines (OAAP).

Last Sept. 1, Calis granted the OAAP’s petition for the issuance of a TRO on the MMDA’s billboard removal drive. The MMDA said the TRO was issued on the same day the petition for the TRO was heard by the court.

“Our legal counsel informed us that we have a strong basis to conclude the judge hearing this case is partial for the petitioner OAAP,” the MMDA said in a statement.

The MMDA said Calis yesterday admitted an affidavit of a representative of billboard firm United Neon as a witness despite the filing of the motion to suspend proceedings by the agency.