A rude awakening courtesy of ‘Milenyo’

IT has taken a typhoon of Milenyo‘s fury to bring home the point that the huge billboards that have been mushrooming all over the metropolis indeed pose danger to people’s lives and safety.

Packing 110 to 140-kph gusty winds, Milenyo gave the government a rude awakening as it swept through Metro Manila, tearing and knocking down billboards, as well as communication and power lines — the worst battering the capital has suffered since typhoon Rosing‘s rampage in November 1995.

Along the stretch of the South Luzon Expressway between Alabang in Muntinlupa and the Bicutan interchange alone, 25 billboards lay toppled, the Inquirer reported.

At least one person, a man who was inside his vehicle, was killed by a billboard felled by the strong winds. Another came crashing down onto a passenger bus. Luckily, no one was hurt.

Prior to this, billboards have already been causing accidents, including one that tumbled on a cable wire of the Metro Rail Transit last year that disrupted railway operations for nearly eight hours.

Yet, until the order from Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo — made in the wake of Milenyo‘s destruction — for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to address the issue of their proliferation, no one has been policing billboards.

Both agencies have been saying that their hands are tied, the DPWH arguing that billboard owners are protected by law, and the MMDA pointing to the local governments, which are responsible for issuing permits to advertising agencies.

Last year, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago filed a bill — Senate Bill No. Bill 1714 or the Billboard Blight Act — to also address the lack of guidelines governing the putting up of advertising billboards. At present, most billboard legislation is based on the vague guidelines of the National Building Code.

In i Report‘s November 2005 issue, the PCIJ pointed out how “big, bold, and not quite beautiful” billboards are becoming not only a health and environmental hazard, but also an ethical issue as they continue to block the city’s natural skyline. Environmentalists like Odette Alcantara even say that billboards are infringing public space: the open air, the landscape, things that she feels belong to everyone.

The report can be accessed here.