Cebu Daily News file photo
DAVAO CITY – All these years since it banned firecrackers in 2002, Davao City has relied on party blowers or “torotot” to generate noise for its New Year revelry. This time around, apart from extending its record of zero firecracker injury, the city plans to have even more fun by aiming for the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest assembly of party blowers.
The record is currently held by Japan.
The attempt at the Guinness record is a collaboration of the city government and Smart Communications.
“This will institutionalize Davao City as a city that believes we do not need firecrackers, we only need to come together and be happy with the New Year that’s coming,” Councilor Leo Avila said.
Eleven years ago, the city government banned firecrackers in the wake of warnings by the Department of Health that firecracker injuries had reached alarming levels, and imposed stiff penalties on violators. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered the police to impose a ban on firecrackers a year earlier.
Unlike other areas with a similar ordinances, the city government pursued the policy doggedly, banning even the transit through the city of firecrackers destined for other places. Even Chinese residents had to give up tradition and find new ways of celebrating special occasions without firecrackers as the city government would not exempt them from the ban.
“Since the existing firecrackers ban redefined the Dabawenyo’s way of celebrating the New Year, we target to gather the world’s largest number of torotot contingents during the New Year’s countdown,” said Arnold Dellosa, Smart’s regional sales manager for South Mindanao.
He said the goal was to gather 10,000 torotot-blowers in one place this year to break Japan’s 6,900 record of party blowers in the Guinness Book of World Records.
“It will be the first time in the Philippines,” Dellosa said of the gathering.
He said the event will start at 1 p.m. on December 31 and last through 1 a.m. on January 1, the start of the year 2014.
“It has been a long tradition among people in this city to also blow a horn in every corner of the house to drive out the bad spirits and welcome the New Year,” he said. “Blow your horns to flush out bad spirits in 2013 and welcome 2014, especially in the city, where the no firecracker policy stands,” he added.
Dellosa said Smart will provide free torotots for each smart subscriber participating in the event.
“Load up and the torotot is free,” he said, “The torotot comes with a raffle coupon that will allow consumers to win fabulous prizes.”
He said postpaid subscribers may register through text messages before they receive a free torotot. Each torotot will have a sticker labeled 2013, which their owners can use as souvenirs because the company plans to hold the activity every year.
In Zamboanga City, meanwhile, more subdued Christmas and New Year celebrations are also expected following the issuance by the city government of a directive against the display, sale and use of firecrackers there.
Monsignor Crisologo Manongas, administrator of the Archdiocese of Zamboanga, said the Church was happy about the directive because it would lead to “a silent and meaningful Christmas.”
However, Manongas said, for the directive to achieve its goal, “enforcement is really crucial.”
Manongas appealed to residents to donate the money they would have spent on firecrackers to typhoon victims.
He said a small pack of sparklers sells for between P40 and P45 “and it takes just seconds to burn your money.”
“That money could have been a kilo of rice that could translate into a meal for a family of six,” Manongas said.
Like Zamboanga, Kidapawan City has also banned pyrotechnics this year and the mayor said there have been attempts to convince him to delay its implementation.
“This is for the good of everybody. It may take some time before we can really adapt to the firecracker ban but we should start now,” Mayor Joseph Evangelista said.
(With reports from Julie S. Alipala and Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao)