Type O tarpaulin violates an ordinance

“Need cash?”, “Review centers for professional examinations”, “Lipatbahay” are some of the posters we always see pasted on buildings and posts or hanging on trees. There are others that are tacked on stands which although temporary and collapsible are designed specifically for such obvious purpose. They are put on strategic places by people who have probably been instructed to look for areas which are within pedestrians and motorists’ direct lines of visions. The purpose is to make sure that they are seen and hopefully read. Necessarily, these forms of advertisements are not hidden in areas where only few people pass by.

The materials used are varied. They range from plain sheets of paper to card boards and lately, tarpaulin. Some are in such small sizes as a fourth of a short bond paper but there are others that are so huge that they literally cover large spaces of buildings on prime locations in the city. Again whether small or large, they are placed in areas as to be eye catchers.

These advertisements are very effective. Last week, when I walked towards the university where I have resumed teaching law, I saw a poster with a remarkably artistic design. It must have been done by a gifted hand. I had to pause for a while in order to appreciate the work. Then, I realized that, in the process, I was impeding the flow of pedestrian traffic.

Also few days ago, I learned that jeepney coming from a barangay in the north district bumped into the rear of a car, somewhere on a road that serves as an access to a mall. Upon investigation, the PUJ driver readily admitted fault, something that is unusual in this kind of traffic infraction. He just scratched his head claiming that he lost focus. When asked why, he looked in the direction of a large tarpaulin with a picture of a woman, almost naked, for his mute answer. 

There is no dispute that these advertising tricks are good sources of information. People looking for services, for instance, find them useful. This must be the reason why the honorable Vice Mayor Augustus Young declared that his group would continue hanging “Type O” tarpaulin posters in all barangays. I would not remember though his reason for putting up these election materials this early but, in a televised interview, he claimed that his political boss, right upon landing on a foreign airport, called him to flood the city with such large tarpaulins. We can therefore anticipate that soon we shall witness this type of election propaganda on every available space in the city. “Mas daghan”, I surmise, “mas maayo”.

A sense of unease took over my being when I heard the vice mayor make that announcement. He was a part of the city council that passed and approved an ordinance banning posters, among other things. The objective of that piece of local legislation is to rid the city of things that dirty it. The councilors who debated that ordinance agreed that after a few days of utility, these posters become garbage. Most, if not all, litter the walkways and eventually get dumped into our sewers where they cause inundation.

Even the attractive posters have their negative impact. An old constitutional law case of Churchill vs. Rafferty tells us that advertisements of kind that make the jeepney driver, the one I have mentioned above, lose his focus is deleterious to the morals of the people. This was not lost to the city council when they discussed this ordinance more than two decades ago. I should know because, modesty aside, I wrote it and I am certain that this local law has withstood the test of time.

If Hon. Young and his group know that putting up Type O tarpaulins violates the law why would they insist on doing so? They must know that in Lukban vs. Villavicencio, they are supposed to observe fealty to the legal mandates because no man is so high that he is above the law. Indeed, in transgressing valid existing ordinances, Hon. Young and company exemplify lawlessness of the most odious order. If it be right for them to desecrate an ordinance, is it a signal to us ordinary mortals that we too can choose to defy laws?

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