Duterte wants Congress to enact law vs firecrackers, pyrotechnics

January 9, 2018

President Rodrigo Duterte wants Congress to pass a law banning all firecrackers and pyrotechnics, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

In a press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte ordered the Department of Trade and Industry to look for alternative livelihood for some 75,000 individuals who would be displaced once a law is passed.

"He wants Congress to enact this law at the soonest time possible so that the public debate on the banning of fireworks and pyrotechnics could begin as early as possible," he said.

He said Duterte's move to ban firecrackers and pyrotechnics was not based on the recommendation of the Department of Health, but as a "result of his own prognosis that firecrackers and pyrotechnics are inimical to human health and safety."

In June last year, Duterte issued Executive Order No. 28, providing for a controlled and supervised use of firecrackers and pyrotechnics.

When Duterte was still a mayor of Davao City, he banned firecrackers in the city. Celerina Monte/DMS