Duterte to ban firecrackers nationwide

MANILA, Philippines - Presidential aspirant and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte wants a total ban on firecrackers nationwide if he wins in 2016.

A city ordinance in Davao, in place for 14 years, bans the possession, sale and use of firecrackers and pyrotechnic materials.

He said everyone’s safety during the holidays is of prime concern, as he noted that the ban in Davao has resulted in “zero injuries” in the city.

Duterte said the true spirit of Christmas is the birth of the baby Jesus and babies are not supposed to be disturbed from their sleep by such a noisy tradition.

“Ssssttt… silence. There should be silence. Silent night because Jesus is born. And if you use firecrackers, the baby will cry… do you want Jesus to cry? So it should be silent,” he said.

“There can be no  compromise for firecrackers and pyrotechnical materials. I want them banned even on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and all year round,” Duterte said.

He also wants a ban on the firing of guns during the holidays, particularly on New Year’s Eve. 

“What goes up must come down… you know that if you are firing your gun in areas where there is a lot of habitation there is always that possibility of killing a human being,” the mayor pointed out.

He said violators should experience detention in the country’s jails, which are mostly congested and dirty.

Support for steel industry

Duterte also vowed to develop the country’s steel industry, eventually providing jobs to thousands of unemployed Filipinos, if elected president in 2016.

Duterte believes the country’s industrialization, just like any other developing country in Asia and first-world Japan and South Korea, would hinge on having its own steel industry.

“In any country that has progress, there has to be industrialization. To create jobs, we must create factories [and] we have to build industry. We have to realize our long dream of having our own steel industry,” Duterte said in a radio interview with dzRJ, the media partner of The STAR.

Comparing the Philippines to its neighbors, Duterte claimed other Asian countries have been progressive because they have their own steel industry, which uses raw materials from the Philippines. – With Edith Regalado