An outdoor advertising firm slammed anew the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for dismantling some 350 lamppost ads worth P1.5 million despite an existing injunction order by the Makati City regional trial court (RTC).

Hospicio Neri Jr., City Advertising Ventures Corp. (City Ads) vice president for sales and operations, said the company has been suffering “great and irreparable injury” arising from losses to their legitimate business.

Neri noted that advertising clients have been shying away from the company as if they no longer want to do business with them, thanks to the MMDA’s actions.

Last week, the MMDA’s Sidewalk Clearing Operations Group (SCOG) tore down 100 lamppost ads along C-5 Road in the cities of Pasig and Quezon; 100 ads along Timog Avenue also in Quezon City; 100 ads along Airport Road in the cities of Parañaque and Pasay and another 50 ads along Meralco Avenue in Pasig.

Bryant Montes, City Ads roving personnel, said the SCOG under the supervision of lawyer Emmanuel De Castro conducted the operations with more than 30 operatives aboard an MMDA-SCOG truck.

This brings to 2,000 the total of dismantled lamppost banners that had been installed by City Ads since 2006, with an estimated value of over P10 million. Other advertising signs removed by MMDA were 17 pedestrian overpass frames and 36 halogen lamps.

In a radio interview over the weekend, MMDA Chairman Oscar Inocentes said the newly installed lamppost and pedestrian banners were not covered by the injunction. But Neri countered that the agency is just "trying to interpret the injunction in its favor.”

According to Neri, the dismantling activities of the MMDA are being done in haste, without notice and due process as mandated by law.

Judge Joselito Villarosa of Makati RTC Branch 66 earlier asked Inocentes and MMDA General Manager Robert Nacianceno, among others, to explain within 10 days why they should not be cited in contempt for violating a November 23, 2006 writ of preliminary injunction restraining them tearing down City Ads lamppost ads and pedestrian overpass banners.

Also named respondents in the special civil action case number 10-531 filed on Oct. 20, 2006 were MMDA officials De Castro, the Assistant General Manager for Operations; Angelito Vergel de Dios, Director for Traffic; Francisco Martinez, Director for metropolitan landscape management office; Ely Pintang, special operations director and a host of other agency operatives and employees.

In 2007, MMDA’s motion for reconsideration was dismissed for lack of merit by the Court of Appeals (CA), prompting the MMDA to elevate the matter to the Supreme Court (SC) in July 2008.

“The writ remains valid and binding and continues to be effective as the high court has not acted upon the appeal for dissolving the writ,” City Ads lawyer Reginald Tayag said.