A worker prepares firecrackers for sale in a makeshift factory ahead of New Year celebrations in Bocaue, Bulacan province on December 27, 2019. (Photo by Maria TAN / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health’s campaign against the use of firecrackers was “relatively successful,” Malacañang said Thursday.
“It should be relatively successful given the fact that there has been a downtrend in injuries. There is no death, unlike before,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Wednesday that the DOH recorded 164 fireworks-related injuries all throughout the country from Dec. 21, 2019 to Jan. 1, 2020.
The figure was 35 percent lower than in the previous year and down 71 percent from the five-year average of 403 cases.
READ: ‘Oxymoronic’: Most injuries due to legal fireworks–DOH
Total ban
Panelo said President Rodrigo Duterte may certify as urgent a bill on the ban of firecrackers after Duque said the DOH would submit its proposal to Congress.
“Kung si Presidente masusunod, ang gusto niya total ban, but marami ring nakikiusap na pwede namang iregulate. Siguro, ‘yun muna,” Panelo said.
(If the President had his way, he wants a total ban. But there are those saying that it should be regulated. Maybe that’s it now.)
In 2017, Duterte signed Executive Order No. 28, regulating the use of firecrackers in the country.
READ: Duterte orders regulated, controlled use of firecrackers