Manila bans roadside laundry, ‘visual clutter’ in new ordinance

MANILA, Philippines – Manila has banned clotheslines outside windows, roadside laundry, and other forms of “visual clutter” that would hinder the city government’s bid for a “clean and orderly” national capital.

The City Council presided by Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna enacted Ordinance No. 8572 or the Tapat Ko-Linis Ko Ordinance on September 2018. 

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno approved and signed the ordinance on October 18, and a copy was released to the media nearly a week later.

The ordinance  requires all residential and commercial establishments in Manila to keep their immediate surroundings and frontage neat and orderly.

To accomplish this, the ordinance lists the following as prohibited acts:

• Hanging of clothes and other effects on electrical wires, windows, posts, and other places not intended for the purpose
• Washing and drying of clothes along the gutter, sidewalks, alleyway, and roads
• Leaving trash in the gutter, sidewalks, streets, alleyway, and roads, and allowing or leaving pet animals to defecate or urinate outside their property line
• Storing, dumping, or placing waste, debris, junked or under repair vehicles, dilapidated appliances, and other objects on any part of the road, street, avenue, or sidewalk which may impede or obstruct vehicular and pedestrian traffic
• Use of sidewalks for plants, trees, and planters

The ordinance also prohibits the following outside one’s property line: construction of pens or cages of animals; keeping animals on a leash; 
construction of house or business extension, including installation of roofs and canopies, awnings, and the like; and the installation of permanent fences and gates.

 Violators face the following penalties:

• 1st offense: Warning/reprimand
• 2nd offense: Fine of not more than P500
• 3rd offense: Fine of not more than P1,000
• 4th offense: Fine of not more than P3,000
• 5th and succeeding offense: Fine of not more than P5,000 or not more than 30 days in jail or both, at the discretion of the court

The penalty of imprisonment does not apply to offenses related to hanging and washing clothes.

Under the ordinance, roads, streets, avenues, alleys, sidewalks, bridges, parks, and other public areas can be used for a public purpose, for a definite period, but subject to a special permit from city hall.

The implementing rules and regulations will be crafted by a technical working group 30 days upon approval of the ordinance.

Read the full ordinance here:

– Rappler.com