After court win, MMDA set to resume 'Baklas Billboard' campaign

Published January 12, 2012 9:09am

A Makati court decision has paved the way for the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to resume the dismantlement of billboards, including gigantic ones on EDSA and other major thoroughfares that don't conform with the Building Code. But MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino explained that his agency is giving billboard operators and advertisers time to comply, the period of which is still subject to dialogue. A Makati court recently dismissed a case filed by the Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines (OAAP) to stop the MMDA's "Baklas Billboard" campaign. The billboard association has argued that the new guidelines for outdoor advertising were "unreasonable" and would drive some companies out of business.

In its petition filed at Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 132, the OAAP asked the court to stop the MMDA from implementing its billboard rules and regulations.

The group argued that "paramount public interest was involved, and that the issues raised were of transcendental importance, as they affected the rights and interest of the general public."

Presiding judge Rommel Baybay dismissed the case, noting that the official acts in question do not affect the entire outdoor advertising industry.

Under the new guidelines, billboards that exceed the prescribed 60 meters x 40 meters will be dismantled. The minimum clearance in between billboards is 100 meters.

In the news release posted on the MMDA website Tolentino said, "We are presently in dialogue with billboard operators and advertisers to work out a mutually acceptable work plan. Definitely, they must conform with the Building Code as soon as possible."

But Tolentino stressed the MMDA will only give the operators a reasonable time to conform, after which the agency will have to resume its "Baklas Billboard" campaign.

"We will also respect the ordinances of local government units which impose more stringent regulations," Tolentino said.

The MMDA has imposed new guidelines for billboard operators, which mainly involve the size of and distance between billboards and other outdoor advertising signs.

It cited an order penned by Judge Baybay, which said the OAAP's complaint failed to state a valid cause of action since the Association is not the "real party in interest."

According to the MMDA, the judge noted the OAAP did not own a single billboard.

Instead, it said the real parties in interest are the members of the OAAP who stand to suffer direct injury as a result of the implementation of the questioned memorandum circular and regulation issued by the MMDA.

"The real party in interest is the party who stands to be benefited or injured by the judgment or the party entitled to the avails of the suit," the MMDA quoted the judge as saying in the order.

Tolentino said the decision represented a "significant victory" for the MMDA.

"We want billboards to conform with the National Building Code. We want to regulate the size and distance between these gargantuan signs, and to reclaim beauty and order in our metropolis," he said. Unreasonable rule

In an interview with GMA News Online, OAAP Chairman Joe Valle said the MMDA has no power to pass legislation, and the new guidelines it wishes to implement are "unreasonable."

"Malaking problema iyan, that will be the demise and companies will close up," said Valle, explaining that the billboards have the necessary permits based on the old guidelines. Under the new guidelines, he added, the billboards that were erected ten or twenty years ago would be torn down.

Valle said that some 40-50 affected members of the OAAP will now file separate petitions in Metro Manila. — with Carmela Lapeña /LBG/HS, GMA News

Tags: mmda, billboards