Amid the noise and smoke, visitors and community members enjoy the New Year celebration in Pogo Grande. This photo was taken in 2014. —WILLIE LOMIBAO
DAGUPAN CITY — For the last 17 years, the village of Pogo Grande here becomes the noisiest village at noon on New Year’s Day.
Oversized triangle-shaped firecrackers, strung up on a long rope that crosses the main village street, are set off to welcome the New Year 12 hours after the traditional revelry. The crackle and pop could be heard for kilometers, making Pogo Grande a tourist destination because of its belated revelry.
But like Jan. 1, 2017, Pogo Grande will be quiet today, having been asked to suspend its tradition due to Executive Order No. 28, the new regulation requiring all firecrackers to be used only in safe zones designated by the local government.
Permits
Jose Jesus Ramos, former Pogo Grande village chief and one of the leaders of the activity, said the community canceled the activity because there was no more time to secure permits.
He said villagers also needed to know what Executive Order No. 28 prescribes as acceptable firecracker sizes, and the length of the “Judas’ belt” (stringed firecrackers) which they could use for the celebration.
Ramos started the tradition by collecting unsold firecrackers and hanging up as many as 100,000 firecrackers across a 400-meter stretch of the street.
The villages of Pogo Grande and Lasip are known for manufacturing firecrackers in Dagupan. More than 20 families producing firecrackers and pyrotechnic products in Pogo Grande have been licensed as backyard enterprises by the city government, he said.
Complaints
But the Pogo Grande tradition began to draw complaints from people who did not appreciate the noise, or who supported the “zero firecracker casualty” campaign of the Department of Health (DOH). The DOH has lobbied for a total ban on firecrackers because of the high rate of burn injuries at the end of each year. Pogo Grande was asked to suspend its tradition on Jan. 1, 2017, on the
advice of the local police.
Fountain show
Its neighboring village of Malued, however, was scheduled to stage a fireworks show on New Year’s Eve.
Malued, in the past, also set off firecrackers in the middle of the street, adopting Pogo Grande’s tradition. “But the police said we could no longer do that,” said Malued village chair Filipina delos Reyes.
Instead, the village was scheduled to stage a fountain show at a 2.5-kilometer stretch of road, Delos Reyes said.
She said 650 fountains would be placed a meter apart. Residents would light the fountain at the the middle of the line, expecting a burst of light and colors that would run until all fountains were consumed at both ends of the rope. —YOLANDA SOTELO