EDITORIAL - Holiday business

When the government bans a firecracker, what do dealers do? They bring in a more powerful version. This is evident in the confiscation by the police of 18 large boxes of firecrackers labeled “Pacquiao Super MAA” the other day in Divisoria. The firecracker is the newer, bigger and more powerful version of the “piccolo,” which was banned in the wake of numerous reports of children getting injured from premature explosions while handling the product. Some of the victims developed tetanus.

With Christmas and New Year’s Eve just a little over two months away, holiday goodies once again abound, including cheap Christmas lights that easily overheat, toy guns that look so much like the real thing they are used by muggers, and popular but banned firecrackers. Except for certain powerful firecrackers such as “pla-pla,” most of the items are imported. Periodic raids are conducted by the police to discourage the sale of such products, but the campaign will have minimal effect unless a parallel effort is undertaken by the Bureau of Customs to stop the smuggling of the goods.

Dangerous firecrackers are not the only items whose proliferation must be stopped. Local manufacturers of firecrackers and pyrotechnics have been complaining of unfair competition posed by smug-gled items that have flooded the country in recent years. Many of the smuggled goods, like those imported and sold legitimately, are in fact superior to many local products and are sold at reasonable prices. Local manufacturers must improve the quality of their goods if they want to compete. But the competition must be fair, and smugglers always have an unfair edge.

The government must support the local industry, which employs thousands especially in the province of Bulacan, by going after smugglers. The campaign can succeed only if it includes a crackdown on the smugglers’ protectors at Customs. The holidays must be merry not for these crooks but for legitimate entrepreneurs.