The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will hand over to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) the authority to enforce regulations limiting the size and location of billboards on major roads.

This is to do away with a legal “gray area” that is being exploited by violators, according to MMDA general manager Tim Orbos.

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The DPWH earlier deputized the MMDA to enforce provisions of the National Building Code regarding billboards and outdoors ads.

But according to Orbos, “the ineffectiveness of implementing the proper regulations to cover billboards is borne out of the fact that we don’t have the mandate. The mandate is with the DPWH under the National Building Code. There was a memorandum of agreement signed in 2011 that passed the authority to MMDA, but you can’t pass authority.”

Orbos said he had discussed the matter with Public Works Secretary Mark Villar and they are set to sign an agreement within the month superseding the 2011 memorandum.

Questioned in court

During the time of then MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino, the agency dismantled hundreds of billboards that did not conform with regulations. The billboard owners then went to court to question MMDA’s authority over outdoor ads.

In 2015, the Court of Appeals upheld that authority. Orbos noted, however, that billboard owners tend to run to DPWH when their permits are denied by the MMDA, and vice versa.

“If both MMDA and DPWH denied their permits, they would go to the local government unit. If the LGU removes the ad, they sue the LGU,” Orbos told reporters

“They take advantage of the gray area so we might as well give (the mandate back to DPWH). We don’t have the personnel to enforce this anyway,” Orbos added.

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