Outdoor ad group asks judge to deny MMDA petition

The Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines (OAAP) on Tuesday opposed the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s (MMDA) petition seeking the inhibition of the judge who earlier issued an order stopping the agency’s crackdown on gigantic billboards displayed on major and secondary thoroughfares in Metro Manila.

Citing the lack of merit, OAAP asked Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 133 Judge Elpidio Calis to deny MMDA’s motion for inhibition with motion to suspend proceedings.

MMDA earlier claimed that the judge exhibited bias or prejudice against the agency during a hearing held on Sept. 1, the same day that he granted OAAP’s petition for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO).

The MMDA alleged that the court’s act in resolving the application for TRO in haste showed the judge’s partiality toward the petitioner. It added that the judge “aided the petitioner in conducting an “unethical legal maneuver” meant to prevent the [MMDA] counsel from defending the cause of the public respondent.”

But the OAAP claimed that the MMDA’s motion for inhibition was evidently meant to delay the proceedings, saying it did not touch on the merits or propriety of the application but rather dwelt on extraneous matters. “Simply put, it is designed to sidetrack the proceedings,” OAAP said.

In an order dated Sept. 1, Calis granted the petition for a TRO sought by the OAAP against the billboard campaign of the MMDA and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).  OAAP had claimed that the MMDA and DPWH acted unlawfully and disregarded the propriety rights of its individual and corporate members when it dismantled and rolled down advertising materials posted in several areas in Metro Manila. Tina G. Santos