Wednesday, November 21, 2007 Mayor orders OBO to go after billboard makers
BILLBOARDS that fell under the powerful winds of tropical storm Lando caused damage in cities in Cebu.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday ordered the Office of the Building Official (OBO) to tear down all other structures of the contractors of billboards that toppled last Monday afternoon.
“Condemn all of the billboards. Presume that they are of the same standard (as that of the felled billboards),” he told engineer Josefa Ylanan, assistant city engineer.
But the Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines (OAAP) Cebu chapter urged the people not to point fingers.
“Our group has the track record to regularly monitor the weather because it affects our business. At 2 p.m. last Monday, we received an advice from Pag-asa and Veco, which we confirmed with CNN online. Both reports showed a tropical depression of 30 to 60 kilometers per hour (kph). For us, this was minimal. This was nothing to be alarmed about,” said OAAP president Mary Ann Alcordo-Solomon.
Solomon said they did not remain complacent. By early Monday afternoon, members of their group rolled up their tarpaulins. Other billboards were deliberately torn, while there are some that were previously designed to withstand strong gusts.
Mandaue City Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna will meet with billboard owners to discuss safety measures.
Not major
The storm did not cause major damage, Fortuna said, except for the three huge billboards that collapsed, trees that fell and the banks of Butuanon river that eroded.
He said a unipole billboard, 50 meters from United Nations Ave. in Barangay Umapad, toppled. One was bent until it touched a roof. Another billboard fell on the roof of another structure in Barangay Ibabao-Estancia, near the house of incoming village chief Carmelino del Mar Jr.
Del Mar said it is high time that the City Government enacted laws to regulate huge billboards.
In a separate interview, Solomon said they were surprised that Lando went up to 100 kph.
She said the company that owned the structure of the billboard that fell in Barangay Luz, Cebu City attended to the medical needs of the four victims who were hurt and taken to the hospital.
“What we are doing now is damage control. We are working together here. We will also be sitting with the local government units and Veco on what else to do,” Solomon said. (RHM/NRC/OCP)
