'MMDA responsible for removing GMA footbridge streamers'

MANILA, Philippines - Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority should be the one to address an appeal made by a militant group to remove President Arroyo’s streamers placed on a footbridge along Commonwealth Avenue.

“It was a government agency (MMDA) that put it there,” Belmonte said in an interview when sought for comment on the request of the group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan to remove the streamer.

Bayan’s Renato Reyes Jr. urged the city government to remove streamers thanking Mrs. Arroyo for the footbridge.

Reyes cited a city ordinance prohibiting candidates – Mrs. Arroyo is seeking to represent a district in Pampanga – from posting campaign paraphernalia in public places.

But Belmonte said it was the MMDA that constructed the pedestrian footbridge. “Let the MMDA take care of it,” he said.