DPWH: No billboards on national roads

All billboards on national roads must go.

This was the consensus reached by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials and Metro Manila mayors during a meeting of the Metro Manila Council, the policy-making body of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Wednesday.

According to Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson, they have already cancelled the permits of all billboards installed on national highways but some outdoor advertisers are defying the DPWH’s directive.

“But we are going to continue to remove them. There should be no billboards along the national highways,” Singson said.

He admitted, however, that they were having difficulty taking down the billboards installed on private property.

Singson added that it was agreed upon during the meeting that local government units would take charge of removing billboards installed on private premises.

“The MMDA will come up with common terms of reference and specifications [on] what shall be allowed so there will be uniformity of the regulations. We will wait for that but as far as giving clearances on billboards on private properties, that is out of our responsibility,” he said.

The DPWH chief noted that the majority of billboards on national highways were situated on private land.

While he acknowledged that the plan to regulate billboards would be a struggle for local government officials since private lot owners may invoke their rights, Singson said he was confident that the MMDA and the LGUs would be able to regulate them.

MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino said they had already drafted the regulations for billboards as part of their campaign to rid Metro Manila streets and property of gigantic advertisements that failed to comply with provisions of the National Building Code.

“We will try to come up with a harmonized version of the various ordinances of the LGUs in Metro Manila to regulate the erring billboards, particularly those without permits,” Tolentino added.

On Thursday, the MMDA filed two more cases against two billboard owners for the illegal operation and maintenance of giant outdoor advertising signs in Quezon City.

Charged with the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office for violation of the National Building Code and its implementing rules and regulations in addition to the lack of necessary permits were O&T Advertising and Distilleria Limtuaco.

One of the billboards that led to the filing of the charges was an advertisement for a clothing line showing a man and a woman in their underwear.

But Tolentino was quick to point out that the billboard operators were charged not because of the advertisements’ content but because of their lack of permits.