Councilor Gealon wants city billboards checked
Cebu City Councilor Rey Gealon has filed a resolution calling on concerned City Hall departments to check on the integrity of billboards around the city.
Gealon said he observed that there were billboards “mushrooming” all over the city with minimal government regulation.
“While most seem structurally sound, others are on the verge of collapse. Angle bars and metal rods, among other materials used, are thin and compromising which pose danger to lives and limbs of pedestrians and motorists alike,” said Gealon.
According to him, in the interest of public safety, there is a need to revisit the policy on the construction of billboards to check the structural integrity, including their locations.
He said that it is important that these billboards will not distract any driver’s view of the road or any tourist’s view of the city’s landscape and scenery.
In his resolution, Gealon stated that some of the structures on which the billboards are placed were installed some time ago.
“Its structural integrity could be affected by different factors, such as the weather, used materials, or manner of installation,” he said.
With these seeming factors, Gealon has requested the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CCDRRMO) and the Office of the Building Official (OBO) to conduct an ocular inspection on the matter of structural integrity of billboards.
According to him its instability may be prone to accidents, especially during calamities.
Aside from the traditional billboards, Gealon also filed another resolution on light-emitting diode (LED) billboards, or digital billboards, specifically the one at Nustar Resort and Casino.
According to Gealon, these digital billboards could be a cause for distractions to motorists traversing the South Road Properties (SRP) coastal road due to its “glaring lights, as well as other motion billboards in the area.”
With this, Gealon also filed a resolution requesting the Cebu City Transportation Office - Planning Section to conduct an ocular inspection on the digital billboard in the area. -