Bulacan fireworks to light up Tacloban New Year’s Eve
SAN RAFAEL, Bulacan—On New Year’s Eve, Tacloban City will have a front-seat view of a dazzling show, courtesy of one of Bulacan’s top fireworks companies.
Dragon Fireworks Inc., which operates a factory here, is shouldering the cost and production of a light show for typhoon-devastated Tacloban
residents on Dec. 31.
Joven Ong, Dragon Fireworks president, said the 15-minute fireworks display would rise above the Tacloban City Hall and would be visible even to residents living 2 kilometers away.
The company shipped equipment and pyrotechnic products to the city on Sunday. A team of fireworks-show technicians has also left for Tacloban, according to Ong.
World champion
Dragon Fireworks is the first Asian company to best other pyrotechnic firms in the world in the 2013 Pyronale Fireworks World Championships, an annual competition held in Germany in September.
Tacloban officials had requested Ong to put up the show, taking up a Dec. 7 offer made by leaders of the Bulacan fireworks industry to provide free fireworks to communities struck hard by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”
Offer, catch
The offer had a catch: Bulacan’s businessmen wanted the stricken communities to request the fireworks because of fears that a fireworks show would be labeled inappropriate.
Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez sought out former Bulacan Rep. Lorna Silverio, also this town’s former mayor, who helped facilitate the free show.
“Of course, we were considering how the tragedy may have impacted on the Visayas, and many residents there may be grieving. As much as we wanted to initiate the light show ourselves, we did not want to be told that the survivors need food, shelter and clothing more than a fireworks display,” Ong said on Monday.
“But now that they urged us to bring the fireworks to them, we gladly did this. We really want to make their New Year happier,” he said.
Tacloban, however, may not be provided the same light show Dragon Fireworks put together in September in Berlin.
Winning entry
The company’s winning entry was a 15-minute pyro-musical performance that featured famous Filipino folk and popular songs, like “Piliin Mo Ang Pilipinas” by Angeline Quinto, “Tanging Yaman” by Carol Banawa and a tune accompanying the folk dance “tinikling.”
“I spoke to Tacloban officials and they told me the light show would be seen by many residents because [Yolanda] had flattened trees and structures in the city [giving them a clear view of the fireworks display],” Ong said.
He said the company also promised to build school buildings in the city, after discussing the proposal with local officials and former Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who was appointed by President Aquino coordinator of rehabilitation efforts in typhoon-stricken areas in the Visayas.
Ong said the school buildings would be completed in time for the June opening of classes.
Fireworks-manufacturing is a leading trade in Bulacan, which has seen rising sales in the run-up to the New Year celebrations.