PORAC, Pampanga – The Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) is not anymore billboard-free despite that policy by the Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council (SCADC).
This came as two big advertising billboards got constructed illegally on the Pampanga side of the 94-km toll road in the first week of February.
One was built at the far end of Angeles City’s Fields Avenue and near the Friendship Gate of the Clark Freeport. The other one was put up in Barangay Planas here.
Made of steel and wrapped with tarpaulin, both billboards promote a popular brand of beer.
The billboard in Planas, measuring 20 by 25 meters, was built on the shoulder of the SCTEx. The one in Angeles City, which is half of that size, stands seven meters from the SCTEX fence.
In separate interviews, Angeles City Mayor Francis Nepomuceno and Porac Mayor Rogelio Santos said they did not issue building permits for those billboards.
“I sent a letter to San Miguel Corp. to relocate it,” Nepomuceno said, citing hazards to air and land transportation. Clark is home to the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport and Omni Flying School.
The Porac municipal planning and development coordinator, Engr. Glenn Lansangan, said Santos has ordered a demolition of the billboard in Planas.
A copy of a business clearance issued by Planas village chief Alfer Nacu showed that the billboard belonged to the O & T Advertising Services.
Nacu stated that the Dec. 15, 2008 clearance was a requisite in securing a mayor’s permit. Lansangan confirmed Santos’ report that the company did not secure a mayor’s permit.
Romeo Ocbina, the company representative, declined to give an answer when called if the firm has actually obtained a permit. It was not known if the billboard in Angeles City also belonged to Ocbina’s firm.
The Porac government gave the company a notice of violation dated Feb. 4, a copy showed.
Secretary Edgardo Pamintuan, chair of the SCADC, said most towns and provinces have abided with the no-billboard policy through ordinances and resolutions.
Porac, he said, has yet to legislate one.
In his letter to local executives last May 9, 2008, Pamintuan asked them to “preserve and protect the untouched panoramic view of SCTEx by regulating the construction and installation of billboards and any similar physical fixtures along both sides of the expressway within your territorial jurisdiction.”
Opened in April 2008, SCTEx begins from the Tipo Road in Subic Bay Freeport. It passes through Roosevelt Forest Park in Dinalupihan in Bataan, heads along rice paddies in Hermosa, sets out to a straight path carved along the Pampanga foothills of the Zambales mountain ranges, and ends in La Paz, Tarlac.
The agricultural sceneries are briefly broken by the rivers of Porac-Gumain and Pasig-Potrero that were the pathways of Mt. Pinatubo’s volcanic sediments in its 1991 eruptions.
Santos said private landowners will have to be persuaded to support the no-billboard policy.
The Department of Public Works and Highways in Central Luzon has turned down numerous applications to build billboards along the SCTEx.
Public safety from billboards came when several of these structures collapsed in Metro Manila during Typhoon Milenyo in September 2006. President Macapagal-Arroyo issued Administrative Order No. 160 that directed the DWPH to dismantle billboards that pose danger to the public.
The North Luzon Expressway had 99 illegal billboards mostly in Bulacan and Pampanga, DPWH reports showed.
Five national roads in the region hosted nearly 1,000 billboards that were not approved by the DPWH but by local governments.
This came as two big advertising billboards got constructed illegally on the Pampanga side of the 94-km toll road in the first week of February.
One was built at the far end of Angeles City’s Fields Avenue and near the Friendship Gate of the Clark Freeport. The other one was put up in Barangay Planas here.
Made of steel and wrapped with tarpaulin, both billboards promote a popular brand of beer.
The billboard in Planas, measuring 20 by 25 meters, was built on the shoulder of the SCTEx. The one in Angeles City, which is half of that size, stands seven meters from the SCTEX fence.
In separate interviews, Angeles City Mayor Francis Nepomuceno and Porac Mayor Rogelio Santos said they did not issue building permits for those billboards.
“I sent a letter to San Miguel Corp. to relocate it,” Nepomuceno said, citing hazards to air and land transportation. Clark is home to the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport and Omni Flying School.
The Porac municipal planning and development coordinator, Engr. Glenn Lansangan, said Santos has ordered a demolition of the billboard in Planas.
A copy of a business clearance issued by Planas village chief Alfer Nacu showed that the billboard belonged to the O & T Advertising Services.
Nacu stated that the Dec. 15, 2008 clearance was a requisite in securing a mayor’s permit. Lansangan confirmed Santos’ report that the company did not secure a mayor’s permit.
Romeo Ocbina, the company representative, declined to give an answer when called if the firm has actually obtained a permit. It was not known if the billboard in Angeles City also belonged to Ocbina’s firm.
The Porac government gave the company a notice of violation dated Feb. 4, a copy showed.
Secretary Edgardo Pamintuan, chair of the SCADC, said most towns and provinces have abided with the no-billboard policy through ordinances and resolutions.
Porac, he said, has yet to legislate one.
In his letter to local executives last May 9, 2008, Pamintuan asked them to “preserve and protect the untouched panoramic view of SCTEx by regulating the construction and installation of billboards and any similar physical fixtures along both sides of the expressway within your territorial jurisdiction.”
Opened in April 2008, SCTEx begins from the Tipo Road in Subic Bay Freeport. It passes through Roosevelt Forest Park in Dinalupihan in Bataan, heads along rice paddies in Hermosa, sets out to a straight path carved along the Pampanga foothills of the Zambales mountain ranges, and ends in La Paz, Tarlac.
The agricultural sceneries are briefly broken by the rivers of Porac-Gumain and Pasig-Potrero that were the pathways of Mt. Pinatubo’s volcanic sediments in its 1991 eruptions.
Santos said private landowners will have to be persuaded to support the no-billboard policy.
The Department of Public Works and Highways in Central Luzon has turned down numerous applications to build billboards along the SCTEx.
Public safety from billboards came when several of these structures collapsed in Metro Manila during Typhoon Milenyo in September 2006. President Macapagal-Arroyo issued Administrative Order No. 160 that directed the DWPH to dismantle billboards that pose danger to the public.
The North Luzon Expressway had 99 illegal billboards mostly in Bulacan and Pampanga, DPWH reports showed.
Five national roads in the region hosted nearly 1,000 billboards that were not approved by the DPWH but by local governments.
