BAGUIO CITY – Lectures and trainings on the implementation of ordinance no. 41, series of 2008, or the Anti-Graffiti Code of the City of Baguio, are being conducted this month by the Anti-Graffiti Task Force (AGTF) for barangay volunteers who will assist in the city’s on-going campaign against graffiti vandalism.
Task force operations volunteer Ross Goze said more than 50 volunteers from 28 barangays have already undergone the training-seminar conducted at the AGTF office at the Baguio Convention Center.
He is asking the other barangays to also send volunteers for training. They can visit or call the office at 442-4114 for scheduling purposes.
Goze said trainees are given the general overview of the code; the process of gathering inventory of illegal graffiti in their respective areas; the actual information campaign; the proper way of removing illegal graffiti, and more.
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
