QC orders crackdown on illegal firecrackers

Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula has ordered a strict implementation of the crackdown on illegal firecrackers in the city.

The crackdown was in support of the Department of Health’s “Oplan Iwas Paputok,” according to Senior Inspector Dorothy Du, chief of the QCPD public information office.

“The district director has ordered the confiscation of all illegal firecrackers being sold in the city,” Du told The STAR in an interview.

She explained that the order concerns not only traders selling illegal firecrackers in the city but also those who will be caught buying and using illegal firecrackers.

Earlier, the city of Marikina and its local police has ordered a ban on the use of firecrackers during the New Year’s celebrations.

The city’s “Oplan Silent Night” involves going after civilian gun holders and manufacturers, sellers and possessors of firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices.

Du, however, said the QCPD would not impose a total ban on firecrackers and pyrotechnics in the city.

She said the city’s police force would only impose a crackdown on firecrackers and pyrotechnics considered as illegal like boga, plapla and a host of other home-made devices.

She added that the QCPD would also go after vendors selling and also buying gun replicas and plastic pellet guns.

Quezon City Ordinance No. 1649 prohibits and bans the manufacture, sale, distribution, purchase and use of plastic toy guns with plastic pellet bullets that pose danger to the public.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has urged the expansion of the list of banned firecrackers, saying there are pyrotechnic devices that are allowed under the law but still pose danger to the public.

Firecrackers like baby rocket, bawang, small trianggulo, watusi, El Diablo, Judas’ belt and kwitis are considered legal under the law.

Other “allowed” firecrackers include fountain, Roman candles, luces, trompillo, whistle bomb, airwolf and butterfly.