Ex-police chief cuts off slur from billboard

Alfredo Lim, a former Manila police chief and the opposition's senatorial candidate, cut off a part of a giant billboard that advertised a brandy, which many women and children said was offensive to them.

Hopping onto a crane that took him 50-foot high, Lim managed to cut out a part of the eight-metre-high billboard of Limtuaco Destileria along Roxas Boulevard in suburban Paranaque.

Below, a group of teenage girls cheered him and said that his courage boosted them to continue their campaign against the advertisement. One of them, Lara Lacson, 15, said she was afraid for her safety when the company started to sell a 15-year-old alcoholic drink
"I felt threatened by the billboard, " she explained, adding, "I and my friends felt we did not have a voice when we called on the company to be more sensitive to us by dismantling the billboard. "

After coming down from the billboard, Lim said, "I did a good job. I have destroyed a derogatory statement that has been offending people's decency and good customs. "

Various groups said the company's billboard offended a lot of people by selling products as if they were women. The company's lawyers said the advertisement should not be taken literally.

Destileria counsel Bonifacio Alentajan said the company wanted to file charges of malicious mischief and destruction of private property against the senatorial candidate.