QUEZON CITY, Dec. 31 (PIA) -- Regional Executive Director Jacqueline A. Caancan welcomes the decision of Metro Manila mayors to ban the sale and use of firecrackers and pyrotechnics amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“DENR National Capital Region commends our local chief executives in supporting the initiative of the Regional Peace and Order Council-National Capital Region (RPOC-NCR) on the ban of firecrackers and pyrotechnics,” Caancan said.
“The ban on firecrackers will help ease air pollution in Metro Manila and reduce the volume of trash resulting from the festivities,” she added.
The RPOC-NCR early this month passed Resolution No. 19 recommending the ban on the use of firecrackers in the 17 local government units of Metro Manila.
The Metro Manila Council/Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) followed with its issuance of Resolution No. 20-17, series of 2020 prohibiting the use of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices during General Community Quarantine.
As of this writing, the mayors of the cities of Mandaluyong, Marikina, Navotas, Pasay, Pasig, and San Juan have complied, issuing Executive Orders banning the sale and use of firecrackers and pyrotechnics within their respective territorial jurisdictions. The city councils of Taguig and Valenzuela, on the other hand, opted to pass their respective ordinances on the same.
The city governments of Caloocan, Makati, Muntinlupa, and Quezon, meanwhile, have existing ordinances regulating the use of firecrackers. City officials have directed all concerned offices to monitor its strict implementation instead.
In 2017, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte issued Executive Order No. 28, mandating tighter regulations on the use of firecrackers and confining the use of pyrotechnics to community fireworks displays.
Since then, the number of firecracker-related injuries went down. Early this year, for example, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded a total of 164 firecracker injuries from Dec. 21, 2019, to Jan. 1, 2020, indicating a 35 percent decrease from previous records.
While Caancan acknowledged that celebrating the New Year with fireworks had been a long-standing Filipino tradition, she said that it is time to rethink the practice given the raging COVID-19 pandemic and changing climate.
“We need to come up with more eco-friendly ways of celebrating the New Year and consider the health risks we open ourselves, families, and friends to when we continue with ‘old normal’ practices”, she said. (DENR NCR/PIA-NCR)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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