How One Fence in the Philippines Made It to Their Supreme Court

It's hard to believe that a fence would be important enough to be brought before a supreme court, but indeed, the Filipino Supreme Court ruled on a fence this past week, ultimately determining the fate of a privacy fence surrounding a school.

The local government in the city of Marikina, Philippines, created ordinances that established rules on fences in the city, including that all fences must be at least 80% see-through with gaps between and that no fence should be higher than one meter (approximately 3 feet).

 A private school found themselves on the end of an order to demolish their security fence to comply with the new height and visibility ordinances.

In addition, the city government told them to move the fence back six meters (nearly 20 feet) to provide more parking space!

The private school was able to secure an injunction, and as the case worked itself through the court system, more and more courts sided with the school. The city government continually appealed until finally, the case reached the Filipino Supreme Court.

In its own way, the Court gave the Marikina government a scathing commentary on their ordinances, ultimately siding with the school and putting an end to the case.

Their reasons for siding with the school included:

• No justification for the height requirement.
  
• Invasion of school privacy and no indication that a see through fence would have any positive impact on the security of the school or the city (in fact, the court agreed that a see-through fence would be less secure).
  
• Moving the fence would cause the school to lose land, and the city government must pay them for that land in order to secure it.
  

The next time you look at your fence, imagine it becoming a federal case—it did in the Philippines, and the case for security fences was made clear!