Palace: Total ban on firecrackers needs careful study

MANILA, Philippines - Proposals to totally ban firecrackers in light of firecracker-related injuries this New Year have to be studied thoroughly and will depend on the recommendation of the Department of Health (DOH), Malacañang said yesterday.

“We will wait for the recommendation of the DOH, and we will discuss it once this issue has been raised. We need to study this proposal carefully since there is a law regulating the use and selling of firecrackers,” Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said.

“It’s so easy to say a ‘total ban’ but we need the full cooperation of the sectors concerned,” he said.

Coloma said they would monitor if a proposal has been filed in Congress, in which case the executive may support it and discuss ways to improve the present system.

Coloma also called on the public to give credit where due, noting that while injuries may have been reduced to about 30 percent, these are mostly attributed to illegal and dangerous firecrackers.

“That is where the DOH must determine if there is such a proposal to totally ban firecrackers,” Coloma suggested.

Coloma stressed the need for all sectors to come into play, starting with concerns over the safety of families with the present use of firecrackers.

Cooperation should also be extended to the barangay level so that there would be discipline in the grassroots level, he said.

The DOH said the number of firecracker injuries rose to 593 as of 6 a.m. yesterday, but this remains lower by 40 percent or 393 cases compared to the same period of Dec. 21, 2012 to Jan. 2, 2013.

The DOH also recorded one more fireworks ingestion case involving a 32-year-old woman from Novaliches, Quezon City who swallowed watusi, a dancing pyrotechnic, placed in her drinking glass during the New Year revelry.

In Pangasinan, the number of firecracker-related injuries has reached 168.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) recorded 69 people injured by firecrackers, a lower number compared to DOH figures.

The Rizal provincial police, however, reported 143 firecracker injuries.

The PNP also recorded three firecracker-related fire incidents while 54 people were arrested for illegal sale of firecrackers.

The police in Davao City arrested a barangay councilman and 31 other people for violating the ordinance prohibiting the sale and use of fireworks and other pyrotechnic materials.

The Southern Police District (SPD), on the other hand, destroyed some P100,000 worth of confiscated illegal fireworks.

SPD spokesman Superintendent Jenny Tecson said the seized illegal firecrackers came from Las Piñas, Pateros, Makati, Muntinlupa, Parañaque and Taguig, mostly peddled openly in the streets.

Acting Health Secretary Janette Garin said 11 more revelers were reported amputated for firecracker injuries, bringing the total cases to 25. A total of 103 sustained eye injuries.

She added the DOH is now refocusing its health campaign to the prevention of tetanus among those injured.

“The DOH would like to remind the public again of the danger of tetanus. Bring those injured to hospitals within 24 hours so they can be vaccinated against tetanus,” she said.

The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI) echoed the call for people injured by firecrackers to immediately go to the hospital, saying that it is more costly to treat tetanus than to undergo anti-tetanus shots. – With Sheila Crisostomo, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Non Alquitran, Mike Frialde, Edith Regalado, Eva Visperas