PESKY graffiti vandals got a stern warning from the head of the Baguio City's Anti-Graffiti Task Force here last Monday.
"You are no longer safe (because) we're coming for you. Even if you're juvenile, we're coming for your parents," Anti-Graffiti Management Committee (AGMC) co-chair Charles Niederstadt Sr. said during the kick-off of the anti-graffiti program at the city hall last Monday.
Niederstadt who co-chairs the task force with Mayor Mauricio Domogan committed readiness to start implementing the campaign by April 23.
"The tools (for an effective program) have been given by the mayor. It is now up to us to do the work," he said as he rallied residents to contribute to the program by helping remove the graffiti, donating spare materials for the removal of the writings, reporting graffiti acts and making contributions in any way to the task force.
The campaign will be anchored on the Anti-Graffiti Code of the City of Baguio or Ordinance no. 41, series of 2008 and the anti-graffiti action plan now being firmed up by the task force.
During the program, representatives from both the government and private sectors committed to fully support the drive.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan said the manifestation of support by representatives from both the government and private sectors is crucial to the cause of the revitalized campaign to stem the worsening problem on vandalism.
He thanked Niederstadt, a foreigner married to a Baguio native, for taking the lead in the campaign.
The foreigner's crusade against graffiti which took roots from his family's brushes with the vandals even in the United States prompted the city to tap Niederstadt's group Stop Tagging Other People’s Property (STOPP) in 2012 to provide assistance in the implementation of the code.
In 2013, the mayor created the AGMC as a private-led government-supported system of management, which will oversee the implementation of the Anti-Graffiti Code in consonance with the operational plan which will involve the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO), students, volunteers, barangays and media.
He tasked Niederstadt as his co-chair with STOPP as the revenue-generating arm to raise funds in addition to the government appropriation beginning 2014 onwards.
Last February, the mayor ordered the finalization of the action plan and the appropriation of the budget to fully enforce the ordinance.
The mayor also incorporated the campaign in the city's clean and green program by making it as one of the criteria in the yearly barangay contest.
Under the code, violators will be penalized with fines ranging from P1,000 to P5,000 and imprisonment. Community service will also be employed as penalty for violators. (Aileen Refuerzo)