Senators try again to ban firecrackers

AP FILE PHOTO

Will the measure to enforce a nationwide ban on firecrackers fly this time or fizzle out anew?

Several senators have revived the proposal as a public health measure, hoping to finally get support under a president who successfully banned firecrackers in Davao City when he was its mayor.

In separate proposals, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian called for a halt to the use of firecrackers across the country, seeking to make nationwide the ban President Duterte imposed in his home city in 2001.

Sen. Nancy Binay also revived her 2013 proposal to outlaw the selling or giving children 15 years and under access to any and all kinds of firecrackers.

Similar attempts to pass firecracker bans in past congresses failed, with the proposals never making it past the committee level.

Sotto, who is filing his firecracker ban bill for the second time, said yesterday there was now “a good chance of passage,” with  Duterte at the government’s helm.

In his bill, Sotto noted that firecracker-related injuries increased during the celebration of Christmas 2015 until the New Year, with one death and 929 injuries recorded from Dec. 21, 2015, to Jan. 5, 2016.

“The use of firecrackers or pyrotechnic devices in any place, regardless of any occasion, is strictly prohibited except in cases provided by this act,” read Sotto’s proposal  filed on July 4.

He said exceptions may be granted only if firework displays are undertaken “by professionals who are technically equipped with skills and knowledge in the use of firecrackers,” and only in “areas specifically designated and authorized by the head of the local government unit.”

Violators who insist on lighting firecrackers face fines of P10,000 to P50,000, and imprisonment of between six months to a year.

In a separate bill, Gatchalian seeks to ban not just the use but the manufacture, sale, distribution and possession of “any firecracker or pyrotechnic device, or such other similar devices.”

“It shall likewise be unlawful for any person to discharge or explode, or cause to discharge or to explode, any firecracker, or any other explosive or to use any pyrotechnic device or any such other similar device,” the bill filed on Sept. 13 reads.

He cited 2014 statistics from the Department of Health, which placed the total number of firecracker-related injuries that year at 1,018, roughly a fourth or 250 cases of which involved children under 10.

Cycle of peril

“Every year, we endure the pollutants caused by the use of firecrackers to welcome the New Year. We see news flashes of countless injuries, especially to hapless children. Until when should we allow this cycle of peril to our health and environment?” he said in his bill.

Gatchalian’s bill would also allow exceptions, but such would require a special permit from the Philippine National Police Firearms and Explosives Office. Only upon the grant of a police permit may a corporation or entity hold a fireworks display.

Like Sotto, Gatchalian said exemptions should only be granted to fireworks professionals.

Binay’s bill reiterates her call to fine or imprison anyone who would sell or provide firecrackers to children 15 years and under, filing again in July a bill she  first proposed in 2013.

“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,” read Binay’s measure.

Her proposal comes with heavy penalties for violators—a prison term of six months to six years, and fines, ranging from P50,000 to P250,000./rga