Somehow, I always get awed by billboards.

I am never comfortable passing along busy streets with giant billboards hovering overhead. In our small city in Dagupan, there is this building in the major city road, on top of which is a big billboard with a telecom ad. Every time I pass said area, I never fail to comment: One day billboards will come tumbling down with strong typhoon winds and rains.

Last week, tropical storm Milenyo (international code name: Xangsane) did just that, though not in our place, but in more crowded Metro Manila. Tragic.

Now, our honorable officials are scurrying to enact laws to regulate billboard advertising. What else is new? I believe it has become part of our culture already, to seek remedy for contingencies not when they are about to happen, but when they have already happened. Of course, it is easy to say - “to prevent future similar incidents from happening again… to prevent more harm… eche blah blah…” But the damage is done and though reparable with regard to property, it is not  so with lost lives.

Sue the billboard owners. They should be liable for the damages. But what about the government? Why were those structures allowed by the government, in the first place? And if some of them had no permits, as reports say, why were the owners able to put them up? Why were they not apprehended?

MMDA officials say in press interviews that some of the billboards in the metropolis are not granted permits… WTF! What a pitiful explanation. Only shows what inept idiots they are.