Crackdown set on China firecrackers

Dagupan City folk light firecrackers to celebrate the transition from 2016 to 2017 in merry-making activities often marred by injuries caused by illegal firecrackers.WILLIE LOMIBAO

BOCAUE, Bulacan — The Bulacan police are on the lookout for “sari sari” (convenience) stores selling piccolo firecrackers smuggled from China, which the local fireworks industry blames for most of firecracker-related injuries during Christmas and the New Year revelry.

“That’s the instruction we are bringing down to all town police chiefs — to inspect and arrest owners of stores that supply piccolo,” said Supt. Gerry Andaya, operations chief of the Bulacan police.

He said the sale of piccolo was prohibited by Republic Act No. 7183 (the law regulating the manufacture and sale of firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices) and Executive Order (EO) No. 28 (which limits the use of and public exposure to firecrackers).

Inspection

He and other officials inspected firecracker factories and stalls here and in San Rafael town on Saturday, more than a month before the start of the Yuletide season when firecrackers and other pyrotechnic products are in great demand.

Joven Ong, president of Philippine Fireworks Association, said 60 percent of firecracker injuries in the country were due to piccolo.

In Bulacan province, half of firecracker-related cases were caused by piccolo, according to Joy Gomez, provincial public health officer. She said the provincial health office had recorded 40 cases of injuries caused by the use of piccolo from middle of December 2016 to early January this year.

“The government should target the retailers of piccolo,” Ong said.

Surveillance

He said police should increase surveillance in two areas where piccolo shipments were likely to be smuggled — ports and Divisoria, a commercial district in Manila.

Smuggling of piccolo has been taking place for more than 10 years, which leaders of the firecracker industry have reported to the government.

But the problem has remained unresolved, according to Celso Cruz, president emeritus of Philippine Pyrotechnic Manufacturers and Dealers Association Inc. (PPMDAI).

Injuries from firecracker use have prompted the Department of Health to campaign for a total ban on the production and sale of firecrackers.

Ong said police had raided piccolo stalls in Divisoria but these shops reopened shortly after every operation.

Exemptions

Leah Alapide, a PPMDAI officer in Bulacan, said piccolo had not been sold in registered fireworks stalls but had been distributed instead by sari sari stores.

EO 28, issued by President Duterte in June, required people to ignite only legal firecrackers in designated firecracker zones to be identified by local governments.

Cruz said her group, PPMDAI, had proposed the implementing rules and regulations for EO 28, which would allow communities with large yards to be exempted from the safe zone regulation.

He said the group had also urged the government to impose the regulation only on neighborhoods with narrow and congested streets. —Carmela Reyes-Estrope