MMDA: Pro-Arroyo streamers to stay on footbridges

Despite a ban on political materials on footbridges, streamers “thanking" President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo hanging there will stay, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said on Tuesday.

MMDA general manager Roberto Nacianceno said “legitimate" non-government organizations, which he did not name, were behind the “Thank you" streamers for President Arroyo.

“Ito [ay] binigay sa amin ng NGO, kami naman... sayang kung di nila ikakabit (The NGOs gave the streamers to us. It would just go to waste if we did not accommodate them)," Nacianceno said in an interview on dzXL radio.

Besides, he said, Mrs. Arroyo is not running for any national post in the May 2010 elections, or for any local post in Quezon City, where the streamers were sighted.

QC ordinance

"She’s not running for (any post in) Quezon City kaya di political ad yan (She is not running for any post in Quezon City so the streamers cannot be considered political ads)," Nacianceno said.

Nacianceno could have been referring to the 20-year-old Quezon City ordinance banning the display of political propaganda along major roads and streets in the city.

Ordinance No. NC-153, S-90, enacted on June 6, 1990, prohibits the display of streamers, stickers, decals, pamphlets, tin plates, cardboards, billboards, or other paraphernalia that advertise business or professional services or similar activities on electric posts, or other public utilities such as bridges and overpasses.

Congressional post

President Arroyo is running for a congressional seat in the second district of her home province of Pampanga in the country’s first nationwide automated elections.

Critics of Mrs. Arroyo claim she is running for congresswoman while her allies are finding ways to amend the 1987 Constitution for a shift to a parliamentary form of government.

Under a parliamentary form of government, Mrs. Arroyo can run for prime minister. - LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV