Giving kids firecrackers should be made a crime – Nancy Binay

Senator Nancy Binay INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines —Senator Nancy Binay wants to make it a crime to sell or give firecrackers and pyrotechnics to children 15 years old or younger.

A bill which Binay said she filed only on July 1 shortly after winning a Senate seat proposes that people caught selling or giving fireworks and firecrackers to children be imprisoned for six months to six years.

Under Senate Bill No. 225, Binay also proposes a fine of P50,000 to P250,000 for those who would expose children to undue risk by giving them pyrotechnic devices and firecrackers.

Binay acknowledged that the use of fireworks and firecrackers has become a Filipino custom but she said there was a need to minimize the danger to children during the annual New Year’s Eve revelry.

“Celebrating events through the use of fireworks and firecrackers has long been a customary practice in the Philippines,” Binay said in her explanatory note. “Considering the risk involved, the proposed bill seeks to reduce the number of accidents and injuries due to firecrackers, majority of which are sustained by children, by prohibiting the selling, giving, or in any way sharing of firecrackers.”

In another attempt to minimize firecracker-related injuries, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago in October re-filed a bill she originally filed in 2007 designating special places for fireworks away from residential areas.

Santiago proposes that violators of the proposed ban on the use of firecrackers and fireworks in residential areas be punished with a fine of P10,000 to P50,000 or imprisonment of six months to a year or both.

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