CALOOCAN CITY, Dec. 27 -- Valenzuela City has prohibited "any pyrotechnic in nature" and upon orders of the local government, from "selling to using, and even doing public displays" ahead of New Year's eve festivities, according to Mayor Rex Gatchalian over the weekend.
Gatchalian said residents, and individuals in Valenzuela will be penalized if they set off firecrackers and hold fireworks display, as well as buy and sell pyrotechnic materials.
"We canceled it because we believe that we want to give our medical frontliners enough room to deal with the COVID situation. We know that there's an impending surge and we don't want to run them thin. We want them to focus on COVID and that's what their request was," he said in an interview by ANC.
Gatchalian said the ban also aims to discourage people from converging to avoid the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
"If we did that for Christmas, might as well do it all for New Year. We have been relatively successful in avoiding convergence," he said.
The mayor, however, noted that majority of his fellow Metro Manila mayors "want the same thing" for New Year.
Violators of the ban in the city will be slapped with a P5,000 fine, and may be imprisoned if caught with the same violation.
"Our campaign would always be, be more practical. Don't spend money on something that will burn in a couple of minutes. Just spend it wisely. Buy food for the family so that everybody can do a salo-salo," he said.
"Not only are there economic implications to buying fireworks that just burn in a couple of seconds. But there are inherent risks whenever you light something up - whether it's inhaling toxic fumes, whether it blows up in your hand."
"Bottomline, it's always safer to just stay at home, celebrate with your loved ones, buy a really nice dinner. Economically, people will have to make priorities this coming new year, so might as well start it on New Year's Eve," he said. (PIA NCR)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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