Duterte’s antifirecracker stance turns off voters in Bulacan

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

BOCAUE, Bulacan—Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to ban firecrackers in the country may cost him votes in Bulacan, the country’s firecracker capital, where dealers objected to the proposal on Tuesday.

Duterte, a presidential candidate, announced his plan in a Mindanao television program on Sunday, saying that fireworks produced by Bulacan should be exported instead.

Ding Dinglasan, owner of Ding Fireworks in Pyrozone I area here, said he was outraged by Duterte’s plan to kill the industry should he be elected President in next year’s elections.

Dinglasan said the Philippine Pyrotechnic Manufacturers and Dealers Association Inc. is composed of manufacturers, suppliers, factory workers and store employees who depend on the fireworks produced each year.

“He has just lost my vote as well as those of my wife, our children, our employees. Let’s assume there are 10 employees for each fireworks store and their respective families,” he said.

He added: “I thought he was ready to help us small traders. I thought he was running for the poor?”

Instead of pushing for the firecracker ban, Duterte should focus instead on the bombings in Mindanao, said Rommel Eustaquio, owner of the Eat Bulaga Fireworks store in Pyrozone II here.

“Fireworks are banned but not bombs? If he was that good he could have stopped suicide bombers from harming Mindanao people. No bomber should elude him,” Eustaquio said.

Traders of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic products said they are licensed to produce and sell firecrackers and they are regularly inspected.

The police scheduled an inspection of the firecracker zone here on Tuesday. Eustaquio asked the police to also inspect outlets in Metro Manila, which, he claimed, are selling unlicensed brands.  Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon