Zambo City starts enforcing firecracker ban

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Police here have started monitoring the entry of firecrackers and pyrotechnics as they implement the city ordinance banning the use and sale of these in the city.

Senior Superintendent Angelito Casimiro, the city police chief, said they were coordinating with the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame and the Firearms Explosives and Security Agencies and Guards Services (Fesags) to monitor the shipment and entry of firecrackers to the city.

The city can be used as a transshipment point for firecrackers that are being delivered to other provinces and cities. Firecrackers intended for delivery to these places may be stored in an area in the city prior to shipment to their destinations.

“Whenever there will be transport [of firecrackers] to the port of Zamboanga, they (shippers) will inform us and they will be coordinating with Fesags,” said Casimiro, explaining the coordination between Camp Crame and the local police in terms of monitoring the shipment of firecrackers to the city.

The city ordinance banning firecrackers was approved on Sept. 30.

Councilor Benjamin Guingona, the ordinance’s author, said memories of the Sept. 9, 2013, terror attack on the city by followers of Moro leader Nur Misuari were “too fresh to be forgotten, and the message is clear and urgent: A definitive and decisive step in banning potential incendiary tools or devices has to be put in place on a permanent basis.”

Guingona also cited the numerous injuries caused by the use of firecrackers as reported by the Department of Health (DOH). Based on DOH statistics, there was a total of 102 cases of injuries in the city due to firecracker use from 2010 to 2013.

In Santa Cruz town, Davao del Sur province, the local police said it would confiscate all types of firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices.

The policemen made the announcement after the municipal council passed an ordinance banning firecrackers and pyrotechnics.

Senior Inspector Grace Jamila de Castro, the town’s police chief, told the Inquirer on Tuesday that the ban would also help prevent fire and injuries.

In 2008, a firecracker caused the fire that razed the public market in Bansalan town in Davao del Sur.

Santa Cruz Mayor Joel Ray Lopez supported the ordinance, saying a similar ban is being successfully implemented in Davao City in the last 11 years. Reports from Liza Jocson and Orlando B. Dinoy, Inquirer Mindanao