Senate bill to ban firecrackers filed

A new bill to ban firecrackers has been filed in the Senate, in support of President Duterte’s call to clamp down on the rowdy tradition that each year leaves hundreds maimed.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, in filing the bill, noted that appeals and reminders have been “futile,” with hospitals treating hundreds of injuries in the runup to the New Year celebrations, which are typically greeted here by exploding the loudest firecrackers in the belief that the noise would drive bad luck away.

“Our government spends so much money on advertising and warning the public and yet accidents are prevalent,” Gatchalian said. “I proposed to completely ban retail sale and use of firecrackers to prevent accidents, fires and negative environmental effects.”

Two similar bills were earlier filed by senators Vicente Sot- to III and Nancy Binay.

Despite warnings, officials said cases of firecracker-related injuries continue to rise, with the Department of Health recording 116 cases so far as of Friday morning.

The figure is 43 percent lower than the five-year average and 38 percent lower than the figures reported during the same period last year, it said.

About 77 percent of the victims were children younger than 15 years old.

Majority of the victims, or 94 percent, were males at 108 cases, with their ages ranging from three to 62 years old.

There were no new cases of firecracker ingestion or stray bullet injuries.

Metro Manila remains the region with the highest number of cases at 63, followed by Calabarzon and Western Visayas which had 12 cases each, the department said.

Most of the injuries were to the hands and eyes. A banned firecracker popular among children, called “piccolo,” caused majority of the injuries at 69 cases, followed by the “boga” at 11 cases. Boga is a canon improvised from industrial plastic pipes.

Last year, the agency recorded 932 firecracker-related injuries nationwide from Dec. 21, 2015 to Jan. 5, 2016, with one death due to an exploding “Goodbye Philippines” firecracker.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) is appealing on the public to stop the practice, stressing that pet animals, particularly cats and dogs, are easily traumatized by the noise.

“It is commonknowledge that animals, particularly cats and dogs, are easily terrified of loud bangs from firecrackers. Because of their acute sense of hearing, what is loud to us, humans, is deafening to them,” PAWS executive director Anna Cabrera said.