Drop billboard case, MMDA urges judge

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has asked the judge who earlier ordered the agency to stop its crackdown on gigantic billboards displayed on Metro Manila roads to inhibit himself from the case.

In a motion for inhibition filed last Friday, the agency said that Judge Elpidio Calis of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 133 exhibited bias or prejudice against the respondents which included the

MMDA and the Department of Public Works and Highways

(DPWH) during the hearing held on September 1, the same day he issued the temporary restraining order (TRO) against the agency.

In that hearing, the MMDA said the judge had insisted that the TRO hearing be completed on the same day because of the urgent nature of the case.

According to the agency, Calis committed grave abuse of discretion when he required the MMDA to conduct a cross-examination of the petitioner’s witness during the hearing without giving the agency’s lawyers enough time to study the witness’ affidavit first.

It claimed that because of the judge’s attempt to speed up the proceedings, the MMDA and DPWH were denied due process.

The judge’s issuance of a TRO on September 1 was in response to a petition filed by the Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines (OAAP) against the billboard crackdown of the MMDA and DPWH.

OAAP had claimed that the government agencies acted unlawfully and disregarded the propriety rights of its individual and corporate members when their personnel dismantled and took down huge billboards posted in several areas in Metro Manila.

The court specifically ordered the suspension of the implementation of MMDA Memorandum Circular No. 10, Series of 2011 and MMDA Regulation No. 04-004 Series of 2004 which set the guidelines for the display and installation of billboards and advertising signs on major and secondary roads and open spaces within the metropolis.

In addition, the TRO also prevents the respondents from enforcing the memorandum of agreement under which the DPWH deputized the MMDA to implement provisions of the National Building Code.

“We thus move for him [Calis] to inhibit himself and allow the case to be raffled [off] to another court where, it is hoped, the case would be tried by a fair and impartial judge,” the MMDA said in its petition.