City seeking to ban ‘ground’ firecrackers
The Iloilo City Government is proposing the banning of “ground” pyrotechnics starting next year to lessen firecracker-related incidents in the city.
Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog said he has already presented the proposal to the 20 firecracker manufacturers in Arevalo district during their recent meeting.
The plan is to do away with making explosives like small triangle, bawang, El Diablo, watusi, baby rocket, paper caps, Judah’s belt, and whistle bomb.
Mabilog said these pyrotechnics are more dangerous because they explode on the ground.
Instead, the mayor urged firecracker makers to produce “flying” explosives like skyrocket locally known as pwitis and other sparkling pyrotechnics such as sparkles, fountain, luces, mabuhay, butterfly, and Roman candle.
“We believe that flying pyrotechnic is safest because it only explodes in the sky after it is lighted,” he said.
Aside from this, Mabilog said they are also proposing that all firecracker manufacturers will have one storage area for all their finished products.
Presently, some manufacturers are keeping their finished products at home which is very dangerous, he said.
Last May, four persons were killed in Mohon, Arevalo, Iloilo City after their house that also served as factory exploded. The victims included two teenagers who were burned to death.
Mabilog said he does not want the same incident to happen again because of the recklessness of firecracker manufacturers.*
