Ormoc City PNP disposes seized firecrackers, pyrotechnics

Members of Ormoc City Police’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit on Thursday laid out for “safe-blasting” at the sand quarry area in Barangay San Juan two truckloads of firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices that were confiscated in December last year.

The blasting disposal of the illegal items, lasting for more than an hour, set aglow the area with flares covering 30-square meter wide and explosions reaching about a hundred meter high.

The safe-blasting was done after the police received an order from Municipal Trial Court in Cities Judge Rene Romero Jr. directing them to “transmit and deliver the confiscated illegal firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices to the Regional Civil Security Unit-8” in Palo, Leyte.

But for safety reasons, the local EOD preferred to dispose the items in the city instead of transporting these to the RCSU8. Senior Inspector Franlin Romeo Parangan, EOD chief, said, “The pyrotechnics are dangerous in long travel for it might explode along the way. Besides, the region has no storage, that is why it was decided to crash these up here,” Parangan said.

The City Police also has no storage designed for the seized firecrackers and pyrotechnics, which were laid out in open space, exposed to rain and the heat of the sun. The seized boxes of firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices were estimated to be worth P800,000.