Kidapawan City mayor bans firecrackers
KIDAPAWAN CITY, North Cotabato, Philippines — Like Davao City, firecrackers and pyrotechnics are now considered illegal here, and penalties and imprisonment await violators.
On Friday, Mayor Joseph Evangelista signed the executive order banning the display, sale, use and setting off of firecrackers and pyrotechnics during the holiday season.
“This is for the good of everybody, it may take sometime before we can really adapt to the firecracker ban but we should start now,” Evangelista said, even as he turned down requests for the delay in the implementation of city ordinance first promulgated in 1995.
“There is opposition (to the firecracker ban) I know but the safety of majority of Kidapawaños is my primary concern as your chief executive, so we need to obey the local law,” Evangelista said.
Pyrotechnics vendors have asked the city government to reconsider the implementation of its ordinance banning the sale of their merchandise, which they said they have procured months back.
Edzel Ariel, president of the Kidapawan City Fireworks Vendors Association, said they would make sure to sell only “safe firecrackers and pyrotechnics” in city government-identified areas.
“We shall also help prevent any smuggling in of firecrackers into the city,” Ariel told reporters.
But Evangelista politely turned down the request and issued an order ensuring a “silent night and holy night” in the city.
“This is to ensure the safety of the public from injuries and even death due to accidents in the use of firecrackers and pyrotechnics,” he said.
It has been 11 years since Davao City banned the manufacture, sale, distribution, possession, or use of firecrackers or pyrotechnic devices any time of the year. Since then, Christmas and New Year celebrations in Davao City have been quiet and injury-free, earning national recognition and admiration.
The city ordinance was not only effective during the Christmas and New Year.
The law also prohibits the use and sale of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices during revelry, including the celebration of the Chinese New Year and the Muslims’ Eid’l Fitr or the end of fasting month.
Some Muslims who prefer to fire guns in welcoming the end of fasting month religiously abide by the Davao ordinance.
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