Monday, October 09, 2006 Outdoor advertisers meet this week with DPWH By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez Of Sun.Star Cebu
WITH the close monitoring by concerned agencies, fewer advertising billboards leaned on power lines and caused brownouts in Cebu City in the past two years.
Attention was drawn to the problem last Aug. 10, 2004, when a power outage occurred after a billboard help up by a weak foundation leaned on a primary line of the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) at the corner of F. Cabahug St. and Juan Luna Ave. That caused the power firm’s Ayala feed to bog down.
It also cut power supply in portions of Barangays Camputhaw, Lahug and Mabolo.
Veco spokesperson Ethel Natera lamented then that she could no longer recall the number of power outages caused by poorly constructed billboards that year.
However, after a meeting with representatives of the Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines (OAAP)-Cebu Chapter and Office of the Building Official (OBO), the problem was immediately addressed and has not happened again since then, Natera said.
“We have always been proactive. We were always a step ahead,” OAAP-Cebu chapter president Mary Ann Alcordo-Solomon said.
“Let the violators pay the price,” Solomon added, as an appeal to those who are seeking stricter regulations on billboards.
Concerns on the risk billboards pose on lives and properties were raised after typhoon Milenyo destroyed several billboards in Manila, killing one person and destroying properties.
Nolita Miel, 83, who has been leasing out for about six years now a portion of her property in New Imus Road to a Davao-based outdoor advertising firm owner, said she never worried about her safety.
The workers of the advertising firm immediately roll up the canvas when the weather goes bad, she said.
She only expressed concern when the firm first proposed to build the structure over their house, which was built in 1951 yet.
However, when the advertising firm owner opted to build the steel structure beside the house, she readily agreed for a fee of P10,000 monthly.
A neighbor of the Miels is also leasing their property to an outdoor advertising firm.
But unlike theirs, the structure is located above the house of the lot owner. She said the businessmen said they preferred to put up billboards in the area since it could be visible from the University of San Carlos-main campus, which is near a busy intersection.
Engineer Josefa Ylanan of the Cebu City Office of the Building Official said there is no law yet prohibiting the construction of billboards in residential areas.
However, they have usually approved the construction of some on vacant spaces, which are the ones available for lease.
Solomon said some of their members built structures built on houses or on rooftops of buildings, which are made of structurally sound concrete.
Civil engineers “sealed” the construction after a load computation and certified the stability of the building.
For billboards with lights, electrical engineers also certify the putting up of power connections, she added.
However, she urged build owners to leave to outdoor advertising agencies the putting up of billboards.
Aside from ensuring compliance with guidelines, outdoor advertising firms pay taxes to the local government.
Solomon said they welcome the regulation by government since it will professionalize the industry.
However, she revealed that the Cebu City Government has been regulating outdoor advertising since 1973, with City Ordinance 836.
During the first term of Mayor Tomas Osmeña in the 1990s, the City’s zoning board also created a signboard committee, giving the industry a closer coordination with the local government.
Aside from conducting regular inspections and monitoring of wind gustiness with the weather bureau, the local billboard industry has been implementing the basic guidelines of the National Building Code by ensuring that their structures do not obstruct any road right-of-way.
For a meeting with officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways this week, OAAP-Cebu Chapter has prepared a list of all billboards of their member-agencies.
They also prepared a video of illegally constructed billboards.
