30 percent of fireworks products now in market smuggled

ANGELES CITY – The president of the Philippine Pyrotechnics Manufacturers and Dealers Association, Inc. (PPMDA) estimated yesterday that about 30 percent of pyrotechnic products now in the market have been smuggled into the country.

In an interview with The Star, PPMDA president Celso Cruz said that for some 50 local licensed pyrotechnic manufacturers nationwide, this situation is aggravated by the fact that on the average, the smuggled products could be 20 percent cheaper than locally produced products for New Year’s day revelry.

“Our observation is that smuggling of pyrotechnic products is even worse this year than in the past years. Smuggling of fireworks products now seem to be as rampant as smuggling of other commodities,“ Cruz lamented. Most of the smuggled products, he noted, were from China.

Cruz said that he and other PPMDA officers will meet today with   Philippine National Police (PNP) firearms and explosives officials to map out ways for the immediate confiscation not only of the smuggled products, but also of those locally but illegally made ones.

“Our legitimate pyrotechnics industry is being killed by both smugglers and illegal manufacturers,” he said.

Cruz said that while the smuggled products seem to be of better quality and are not produced locally, they could have been classified  “rejects” in their countries of origin and merely dumped in the Philippines.  “Because of this, they could be dangerous,” he said.