Duterte postpones nationwide firecrackers ban
By Jelly F. Musico
MANILA – Filipinos can still welcome 2017 with firecrackers after President Rodrigo R. Duterte said it would be too late to impose total ban on firecrackers this coming New Year’s celebration.
”It’s too late already. Everybody…they all have invested. It would not be fair,” President Duterte said in a media interview after visiting his parents’ tombs at the Wireless Catholic Cemetery in Davao City early Thursday morning.
President Duterte said he is inclined to make the entire Philippines like Davao City where people celebrate Christmas and New Year with no firecrackers for the last 15 years.
”At this time, I’d like to put everybody on notice that I have seriously considered making the entire Philippines like Davao. We observe the Christmas time with solemnity,” Duterte, mayor of Davao City for 23 years before he was elected President, said.
The President said another explosion at a firecracker factory that killed two people in Bulacan last Wednesday would be good reason for him to ban firecrackers nationwide.
However, President Duterte said he would allow Congress to act first on the proposal to totally ban firecrackers during New Year’s Day revelry.
”That has to be decided, but I would like Congress to act on it first. And if they do not want it, well, I will see if I can do it by executive order,” President Duterte said.
”Anyway, it is the power of the President to come up with measures to protect public property, public interest and safety,” he added.
The President said he decided to ban firecrackers in Davao City “because most of the victims are children.”
”In previous years, we used to hit something like 600 serious cases of children going blind, losing a limb, finger and a hand. But now, not a single case in hospital,” he said.
For the meantime, the President said he would just issue a warning about the danger of firecrackers to prevent injuries and even deaths these coming Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. (PNA)
