The Metro Manila Development Authority will resume its campaign against billboards and other outdoor commercial displays that pose undue distractions to motorists and may lead to accidents.
“Yes, we are ready at anytime to resume our campaign. But we must wait first for the final decision on the case,” said MMDA chairman Emerson Carlos.
The Court of Appeals earlier overturned the decision of a Makati City trial court which stopped the MMDA from regulating the use of billboards and advertising signs along major and secondary thoroughfares in the metropolis.
“This is a welcome development on the part of the MMDA, which is tasked also to clear ads signs and gigantic billboards which not only distract motorists and serve as eyesores in the Metro Manila skylines but also give subliminal messages,” Carlos said.
The MMDA, during the watch of chairman Francis Tolentino, drew flak from certain groups when it opened the way “to regulate the billboard industry which fortuitously resisted change in any form whatsoever.”
“If in the process of revamping the industry and entrenched interests bite back, the MMDA will still do what is best for the common good,” Carlos said. “Our campaign is more on public safety.”
Carlos said the agency will meet members of the Metro Manila Council, the policy-making body of the MMDA, to discuss the resumption of anti-billboard campaign in the National Capital Region, especially along the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.
Carlos expressed confidence that the CA ruling would set a precedent in the other cases lodged by private companies against the MMDA, questioning the authority of the agency in issuing permits for billboards and advertising signs.
We hope that the ruling will also be a precedent in cases against the MMDA, with the courts deciding in favor of the agency,” he said.
In a 21-page decision, the CA dismissed the petition for declaratory relief filed by the three advertising firms—Summit Publishing Co. Inc., Bigboard Advertising Corp. and Sygoo Enterprises—against the MMDA, ruling that the Makati court committed a grave abuse of discretion.
The MMDA and the Department of Public Works and Highways signed a memorandum of agreement, deputizing the former to implement provisions of the National Building Code that regulates the issuance of clearances to applicants of billboard permits.
The MMDA came up with a comprehensive study and plan about billboards. It stated that outdoor commercial displays could also cause road accidents and affect driver behavior.
The MMDA study also stated that billboards have too many negative impacts—environmental hazards, endangers public safety, increased crash rates, and traffic slowdown.
The DPWH made a research in 2011 dubbed as Metro Manila Urban Transport Integration Study. The study showed that sexy billboards contribute to traffic and traffic speed in the metropolis was among the worse in Asia.
Citing the MMUTIS study, former DPWH director for planning service Melvin Navarro had mentioned that there is a co-relation between the travel speed and the sexy billboard.
“It will lessen travel speed because people slow down to get a good view of the sexually explicit billboards. It’s so huge, you can’t help but look and in the thick of traffic, a split-second distraction can mean slow-down, if not accident.’’
Observers suggested there must be a self-regulation on the part of the owners of commercial displays. They said if the owners knew that the model wearing sexy outfit has nothing to do with the product, they should remove that billboard and replace it.
