In a statement, the BCDA said that landslide occurred along Barangay Pabanlag, Floridablanca, on September 8 at around 2 a.m. in the height of extraordinary heavy rains in the area.

Clearing operations are now ongoing and are expected to be completed within the day. The BCDA and its interim service provider, Tollways Management Corporation (TMC), have also fielded personnel to make sure that motorists are being warned about the situation.

Further, the BCDA is hiring the services of an independent geotechnical engineer to review the situation and provide a long-term holistic solution.

BCDA is looking at the warranties of the contractors and consultants based on their contracts.

In the meantime, motorists are advised to take the necessary precautions and observe the proper speed limit while driving along the SCTEx. Rey Garcia

The supposed “rationalization” currently being proposed by the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) on the rules that would govern the placement, installation and location of outdoor advertising, more popularly known as billboards, along the 92-kilometer stretch of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) is a fitting prelude to the greatest crime against nature that could ever happen on this side of the earth.

The BCDA and the Department of Public Works and Highways have started to draft said rules and presented the idea during a “consultative” meeting held recently in Clark.

In the surface, the move appears to be laudable, as there seemed to be some semblance of foresight on the part of agencies in charge of this world-class superhighway.

But in real terms, these agencies have actually started to position into the minds of the general public, particularly the stakeholders of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Corridor, the idea that erection of billboards and other commercial signage will definitely be allowed very soon.

In this country, once government and local leaders start to verbalize such highly abused words like “rationalizing,” synchronizing, safeguarding, etc., we the citizenry should better brace ourselves for the worst to come.

More often than not, a deal has already been struck and the next thing you know, it is already being implemented, and the people involved will just parry whatever public outcry it may result into, and the rest is history….

They will just let their highly paid lawyers to take charge, as they laugh their way to the bank, so to speak.

During that “consultative meeting,” on SCTEx signs and signboard structures, BCDA officials, led by a certain Engr. Tiotuyco, tagged along DPWH Director Emmanuel Cuntapay of the National Building Code. Cuntapay proved to be inefficient in eradicating those humongous billboards in the streets of Metro Manila despite direct orders from no less than President Arroyo.

The public-works official simply reasoned out that the existing National Building Code could not allow them (DPWH) to do just that, unless and until the code is amended. Ergo, he can also cite that reasoning once giant billboards begin to mushroom along the SCTEx.

Going back to the issue at hand, during that meeting in Clark on August 12, the issue of allowing these “monsters,” called outdoor advertising structures, has become obvious, if not devious.

Both officials declared that locations will be identified where service providers can put up signs and structures according to specifications detailed in the supposed rules for billboards and signages along the expressway.

Tiotuyco even expressed his observation that, in certain places, billboards “may even help add to landscape aesthetics, and provide illumination as well for night drivers.”

There you go…. Right after professing “environmental concerns and care, the BCDA messenger clearly sent the message across that locations of billboards and other related signs and structures “will be identified, prior to allowing such structures.”

Outdoor advertising is a multibillion-peso industry. And these vultures in the advertising sector, including the advertisers themselves, are now hovering around the scenic SCTEx.

Like hungry eagles, they are now preying on the otherwise serene and quiet nature of the superhighway.

The people of Central Luzon should unite against this evil plot.

At the same time, local government leaders should never allow themselves to be a part of this crime against nature and should even take the lead in curbing the plot of imperial Manila to duplicate the rotten streets and avenues that they now have.

Our paper will continue to advocate for a total ban of billboards along the SCTEx. We will continue to drumbeat and herald every step of the way in whatever way we can to deflect any moves concerning this evil plot that would definitely lead to the rape of the superhighway.