DENR welcomes cancellation of Okada balloon drop event

MANILA, Philippines —The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Monday welcomed the decision of Okada Manila to call off its attempt to break the world record for the largest balloon drop.

“Kami naman ay natutuwa at nirerecognize din natin ‘yung pag-heed doon sa public call na ipatigil ‘yung balloon drop at medyo naiwasan natin ‘yung pag-generate ng waste na talagang maaaring makasira ng ating kapaligiran,” DENR Undersecretary for Environment and International Environment Affairs Jonas Leones said in an interview over dzBB.

Cove Manila, an indoor entertainment space inside the Okada Manila complex, earlier announced that it will host a balloon drop event on New Year’s Eve in an attempt to set a Guinness World Records with 130,000 balloons dropped in an indoor dome.

However, on Saturday night, Cove Manila announced that it will not push through with the balloon drop stunt “as a sign of respect” to the DENR.

This is after the Environment department ordered the event organizers to stop the planned event, calling it “a solid waste disaster waiting to happen.”

READ: Okada cancels world-record attempt to drop largest number of balloons

Aside from the DENR, a number of environmental groups also called on Okada Manila to stop the event.

Should the event pushes through, Leones said DENR would “strictly monitor” it even it was set in a private area.

“Ang plano natin kung hindi natin mapapatigil, talagang we will be monitoring closely and we will see if there will be violations,” Leones said.  /muf