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Featured Stories

PEOPLE POWER
The Paradox of Freedom: People Power in the Information Age
by David Celdran
When public space migrates to the airwaves and the news pages, politics risks degenerating into a spectator sport.

ELECTIONS 2004
Lanao’s Dirty Secrets
by Sheila S. Coronel
What really happened in Lanao del Sur in 2004 that prompted the attempts to silence Brig. Gen. Gudani?

10 Reasons to Doubt the 2004 Election Results
by Yvonne T. Chua and Avigail M. Olarte
The numbers don’t alays add up, and that’s just one reason why last year’s elections are so controversial.

THE FUTURE OF ELECTIONS
Can Comelec Reform?
by Alecks P. Pabico
Despite being hounded by controversy, the elections body is resisting change.

REFORMS IN THE BARRACKS
The Officers Who Say No
by Luz Rimban
Military and police officers believe reforming the system begins with reforming the individual.

JOURNALIST AT RISK
Reporting under the Gun
by Vinia M. Datinguinoo
Mei Magsino escaped the wrath of the alleged jueteng lord who is also Batangas governor.

THE METROPOLIS
Battle of the Billboards
by Charlene Dy
They’re big, bold, and not quite beautiful. They can also be a health and environmental hazard, but so far, no one is policing billboards.

WOMEN AND DISASTER
Resilience Amid Ruin
by Tess Bacalla
Many more women than men died in the Aceh tsunami. Today the women survivors wrestle with disaster relief programs that don’t consider special needs.

YOUTH VOLUNTEERS
A Gift of Self
Young people discover life’s meaning by doing volunteer work.

SPECIAL ON PINOY POLITICAL HUMOR
Impersonating Presidents
by Elvira Mata
This is a coutnry where there's always someone spoofing a president — dead or alive — on TV, during cocnerts, and from time to time, at people power marches. Five actors top the list of the country's best impersonators.

La Vida Doble
by Tony Velazquez
Because Philippine politics is so ridiculous, amateur impersonators are having a feast.

Mobile Clowning
by Sheila S. Coronel
The cellphone has only encouraged the Pinoy propensity for jokes.

Where Has All the Laughter Gone?
by Katrina Stuart Santiago
Websites and blogs have provided an outlet for political humor, but not all of them are funny.

They're big, bold, and not quite beautiful. They can also be a health and environmental hazard, but so far, no one is policing billboards.

by CHARLENE DY

	BILLBOARD BOOM. The mushrooming of billboards along Edsa has resulted in the obliteration of the natural city skyline.

THEY’RE BIG and bold, but Metro Manila’s billboards aren’t exactly beautiful, at least not to everyone. These days one billboard has caught the city’s attention, and few have had nice words for it just yet. One irate motorist even called up a radio station to ask, “Can I do anything about the fact that when you’re going south on Edsa on the Guadalupe Bridge, there’s a big moving screen, and it’s glaring, even distracting, and might cause traffic accidents?” The radio host’s reply: “Well, I think it’s owned by the city of Makati.”

It turns out the electronic billboard in question is only a “joint venture” between the city of Makati and Dream Advertising, which owns it. Dream Advertising, with the help of Korean partners, brought LED (light emitting diode) technology recently to Manila. Since the billboard was put up this year, it has attracted controversy along with ad placements. Motorists have griped about its brightness, billboard suppliers complain that it blocks the advertisements behind it, environmentalists dislike that its foundation was built on a former public park. It also turns out that it went up after Makati’s local government had already issued a memorandum prohibiting any billboard permits to be granted until a new set of ordinances—the Makati City Billboard Masterplan—takes effect.

Makati City Building Inspector Ruel Almazan says the plans for the billboard had been submitted before the memorandum was issued, which was why it was able to clinch a permit. He also says the billboard had been a donation to the city. Engineer Annabelle Maniego, meanwhile, says that there had been a special resolution granted for the LED, adding that the display is “supposed to be for Makati City programs.”

On the same day that she says this, however, among the billboard’s 10- or 15- second spots is a commercial of a golden chicken patty plopping onto a lettuce-topped bun. It’s an ad for KFC, which doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Makati City programs. To Dream executives, there is no question that the billboard is commercial, but its association with Makati City has caused a great deal of confusion, both for commuters and, it seems, for city officials.

In any case, the questions surrounding the electronic billboard make it an ideal poster child—or problem child—for the ongoing billboard debate, which is admittedly getting to be more one-sided as each day passes: just about everyone has something bad to say about them. Just about everyone, however, also believes there’s profit to be made (and being made) in those giant signs.

Not that there’s anything bad about commerce per se. People like environmentalist Odette Alcantara, however, say that the resulting mushrooming of billboards is an ethical issue, in part because they mar the natural city skyline. Alcantara is the convener of the Anti-Billboard Coalition or ABC, a group of about 30 motorists, journalists, lawyers, greenies, and other concerned citizens. “I want to make it clear,” she announces. “I’m not against billboards. I’m against billboards in the wrong place. I’m anti-space abuse.” For Alcantara, the billboard boom infringes on public space: the open air, the landscape, things she feels belong to everyone, not just outdoor-media suppliers and advertising agencies. She also says, “They are traffic hazards. They supplant the road signs!” There are also issues regarding aesthetics, offensive content, and structural safety.

These can be difficult to quantify. No studies have been conducted that show whether traffic accidents are caused by billboards, for instance, and offensiveness is subjective. While one viewer may see a billboard of a bare-chested hunk in low-riding denims as lascivious, another might consider it the highlight of her—or his—daily commute.

In 2003, the Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines (OAAP) also commissioned a study that showed only three percent of media viewers in Metro Manila had totally “negative” responses to billboards. Alcantara, however, says numbers are irrelevant. “You don’t win (the debate) with statistics,” she says. “I want it discussed on a moral high ground. This is essentially a moral issue, an abuse of power.”

MONEY MACHINES
Again, for the cynical, all these can really be boiled down to that simple fact of life: money. Or as media consultant Lloyd Tronco puts it, the current billboard explosion has roots in changes in market demographics, improved technology, and competitive prices.

Tronco points out that billboards can connect easily with target markets because “more people are mobile nowadays,” referring to the increasing number of commuters and more time spent outside of the house. There has also been the advent of digital printing, which has allowed billboards to be printed cheaply and quickly on tarpaulin, a resilient, element-friendly material. Lately, billboards have been getting pocket-friendly are as well. According to Carlo Llave, OAAP chairman and president of media supplier Fourth Dimension, they fetched P200 per square-foot in 1989, when they were first introduced in the country. The peso was still something like 26 to the U.S. dollar then. Today, tarpaulin billboards cost only P14 per square foot.

In contrast, “rates are skyrocketing” for other media (radio, TV, print) advertising, says Joel Callao, president of outdoor-media supplier MediaPool. For instance, a 3,000-square-foot billboard on a major route like Edsa would cost about P200,000 per month. A full-color, full-page ad in a major daily newspaper would cost approximately P250,000 on a weekday, and P300,000 on weekends. A 30-second primetime slot on a major local channel, meanwhile, would run about P180,000.

Advertisers aren’t the only ones who profit from billboards’ affordable rates. Obviously so do media suppliers, who are the actual billboard builders and maintainers; numerous landowners also benefit from renting out their property.

So money is really being made, lots of it in fact, although trying to keep track of just how much the outdoor-advertising industry is raking in can be thorny, since there is no system for measuring the budgets and revenues of those connected with it. But Callao suggests that if one assumes that the leading firms, such as United Neon, Carranz, and his own MediaPool, gross some P5 million each per month, the collective yearly revenues for the industry’s top ten earners could reach P600 million a year. There are about 60 other smaller billboard suppliers within the OAAP, many of whom earn approximately P2 million a month, and countless other media suppliers that aren’t affiliated with the association. Add all the numbers, and the total take of the industry could be more than P2 billion a year.