DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan said it is important to immediately clear major roads of structures that threaten public safety after the government’s weather bureau warned that a La Niña phenomenon will hit the country this year.
"We expect that there will be more typhoons and more rains. We expect it to be a wetter year, unfortunately, so we have to intensify our campaign to promote public safety and Oplan Baklas Billboard is an important part of it," he said.
Bonoan said the first billboards to go are either oversized or do not conform to standards set by the National Building Code (NBC), since the DPWH does not want to have a repeat of the damages to lives and properties brought by super typhoon Milenyo last year.
He appealed to outdoor advertising firms to voluntarily dismantle their illegal structures lest the DPWH confiscate their materials to cover the expenses of a government-spearheaded demolition.
Officials, led by DPWH Assistant Secretary Rafael Yabut, conducted a visual inspection last week of billboard structures along the two expressways leading to North and South Luzon. They discovered that majority of advertising structures do not comply with NBC guidelines.
Yabut said most billboards along NLEX and SLEX were oversized and constructed near power lines, making them a threat to commuters and motorists.
He also said they will include the owners of lots where illegal billboards have been erected in civil or criminal cases to be filed in court.
In coordination with the DPWH National Building Code Development Office (NBCDO), Yabut also instructed the DPWH regional directors and district engineers to coordinate with local building officials within the area and billboard owners to secure the necessary permits or voluntarily dismantle their illegal billboards.
Alan Jeffrey Ang of the Manila North Tollways Corp. reported that there are 112 billboards along NLEX.
DPWH-Region IV-A director Bonifacio Seguit has vowed to dismantle abandoned illegal billboard structures within his jurisdiction along SLEX.
Officials have inspected a total 17,845 billboards nationwide. Of this figure, 11,162 have been dismantled after being declared unsafe and 6,683 of these unsafe billboards were located in Metro Manila. – Edu Punay