Metro Briefs: Feb. 28, 2019

Comelec, MMDA target illegal campaign materials

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will lead other government agencies in tearing down all illegal campaign propaganda materials in Metro Manila today, Feb. 28.

A team will assemble at the Makati office of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, one of the deputized agencies, before proceeding with the “baklas” operations in Mandaluyong, San Juan, Caloocan, Valenzuela and Quezon City.

Under Resolution No. 10488, campaign posters should be no more than two by three feet and posted or displayed only in designated common poster areas or on private property with the consent of the owner.

Campaign ads are prohibited in LED and LCD monitors, on the walls of public buildings, motor vehicles owned by local governments and government-owned or controlled corporations, public transport vehicles owned and controlled by the government (such as the Metro Rail Transit, Light Rail Transit and Philippine National Railways trains), waiting sheds, sidewalks, street and lamp posts, electric posts and wires, traffic signs, pedestrian overpasses and underpasses, public shrines, barangay halls and government offices. —Tina G. Santos

Condo-style homes set to rise for Tondo folk 

A relocation site for longtime residents of Isla Puting Bato in Tondo, Manila, will soon rise on a piece of land within the Port of Manila.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by government officials and stakeholders on Tuesday designated an area of at least 5 ha for low-rise, condominium-style housing units.

The project will be a collaboration among the National Housing Authority, the city government, the International Container Terminal Services Inc. and Manila North Harbour Port Inc.

About 2,000 families are being considered as possible beneficiaries of the resettlement project.

Manila Rep. Manny Lopez, whose district covers the relocation site, hailed the MOU as a culmination of complicated efforts to solve the two-decade-old problem of his constituents and their desire for a “roof over their heads.”

“Finally, the hard work of Congress is becoming a reality and can truly be felt by our countrymen who are most in need. They will now have their own homes built on land and not on water,” Lopez said.

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