BAGUIO CITY – More than 50 volunteers from 28 barangays have already been briefed and trained by the Anti-Graffiti Task Force (AGTF) co-chaired by Mayor Mauricio Domogan and CJ Neiderstadt to assist in the city’s campaign against graffiti vandalism.
This was revealed in a report of AGTF operations volunteer Ross Goze during the recent Alay Sa Kalinisan, Inc. (ASKI) meeting at City Hall multi-purpose hall presided by the Mayor.
Goze is asking the other 100 barangays to also send their volunteers to his office to be trained and lectured on city ordinance no. 41, series of 2008, or the Anti-Graffiti Code of the City of Baguio authored by then vice-mayor Daniel Farinas.
The AGTF office is located at the second floor of the Baguio Convention Center and is currently manned by two tourism student volunteers. Its landline number is (074) 442-4114.
The code defines graffiti or graffiti vandalism as “any unauthorized inscription, word, figure, painting or defacement that is written, marked, etched, scratched, sprayed, drawn, painted or engraved on or otherwise affixed, to the extent that the graffiti was not authorized in advance by the owner or occupant of the property, or despite advance authorization, is otherwise deemed a public nuisance. It shall include all types of unauthorized markings amounting to vandalism and public nuisance.
A property owner is not absolutely prohibited from authorizing graffiti-type artwork for decorative purposes.
The code also mentions other prohibited acts, penalties to be imposed for violations and other pertinent details for its proper implementation.
Citing the continuing proliferation of graffiti vandalism in Baguio, the City Schools Division headed by then OIC Augustin Laban III issued a memorandum in 2012 disseminating the Anti-Graffiti Code to all public schools district supervisors, secondary school principals, head teachers, teachers-in-charge, pupils, students and all others concerned.
“There is a need for school administrators to disseminate the Anti-Graffiti Code ordinance and inform our pupils and students of the bad effects of graffiti vandalism including penalties for violations thereof,” the memorandum stated./Gaby Keith
