Until the fireworks industry is able to start making safer ‘crackers and fireworks, we will go along with the Department of Health’s call for a ban on the sale of these Holiday devices. “There are no safe firecrackers,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd said at a press briefing. Even traditional fireworks have turned deadly, he added.

The current products, made more powerful and more explosive each year, are veritable bombs and
grenades. They could maim or kill a user. An accident could easily tear away a finger, a hand or an arm.

Serious body burns and blindness are possible effects. Children could also ingest firecrackers with fatal results.

Economic and health costs

Firecrackers and fireworks have burned down pyrotechnics factories, homes and stores. Destruction of property and businesses has been considerable. The healthcare costs have burdened countless families and the state.

There was a time when a merrymaker could hold the standard firecracker with his fingertips, light it and let it explode at arm’s length without harming himself. If he wanted more noise or more bang, he would light a number of “rebentador” in batches and drop them in an empty drum.

Today’s firecrackers are produced not for the noise but for power and explosive impact. Many models are also lighted not singly but in batches and bundles. The explosion is louder and the destruction more widespread. With hundreds exploding simultaneously on the ground and in the air, lethal accidents could happen.

A gallery of villains

It also happens that last night’s ‘crackers, unlighted ones and those that were lit but failed to explode, could turn alive when used again by unsuspecting children and juveniles.

Watch out for the following explosives masquerading as firecrackers: the piccolo, the 5-star, the camara, whistle-bomb, bawang and triangulo. The piccolo, according to the Department of Health, was last year’s number-one cause of injuries. It turns out that the traditional kwitis (skyrockets) and luces (sparklers) were among the top five that spoiled last year’s celebration.

Two other causes of worry during Yuletide are gun-toting drunks and inebriated drivers. Unfortunately, while the Philippine National Police keeps tab on the indiscriminate discharge of firearms, it is dismissive of driving under the influence and does not report (or care to make arrests) on irresponsible driving during and after the holidays.

Licensed to kill
Mr. Duque is inclined to designate places where fireworks and firecrackers could be handled by people trained in their use. He has asked the police and barangay tanod to exert every effort to ban their sale.

This would take some doing. Firecracker plants will continue to manufacture their ware because they are licensed by law for such business. Retail stores will go on selling the devices because no law forbids their sale. The customers—mostly men, most of them young—will buy the stuff for the fun and the excitement.

There ought to be a law restricting the manufacture of firecrackers to safer ones, the “tame” but noisy “rebentadors” we enjoyed tossing in earlier days. Dangerous models like the piccolo and its brothers will have to go. Throw the book—closure or imprisonment or both—at businessmen who manufacture the tiny bombs and grenades.

Industry self-policing
The manufacture of low-intensity sparklers and skyrockets may continue because there is a place for them in the community life—during fiestas and national holidays, sports events and social observances.

The National Association of Fireworks and Firecrackers Manufacturers should be held up to a higher level of accountability and responsibility. Self policing, if that is possible, must take precedence over business interests. Accident preventive measures for the workers and the public are to be preferred over law enforcement. At a time when CSR (corporate social responsibility) is a growing mantra for private business, there seems to be a lack of it in the fireworks industry.

We appreciate a joyful and noisy welcome of the New Year, but spare us from the deadly piccolos that threaten our safety and that explode like “bombs bursting in air.”

Salute to Ben Rodriguez

We salute the memory of Mr. Ben F. Rodriguez, editor of The Manila Bulletin until his retirement in 2004, who was 86 when he died on Friday November 13.

Born on September 17, 1923, in Jolo, Sulu, Mang Ben, as younger journalists called him, or Ben, to contemporaries, was a professional journalist 60 years.

Like many Filipinos who were college students when the Second World War broke out, Ben joined the
Philippine-American forces that fought the Japanese invaders. The US military awarded him the Purple Heart medal.

He had a bachelor’s degree, major in journalism, from the University of Santo Tomas when he began his career with the Manila Bulletin as a cub reporter in 1949. That career lasted six decades, with Ben covering almost every reportorial beat—the airport, Customs, the weather bureau, the police, City Hall, the major government corporations, the courts, the Senate and Malacañang. Then he became provincial news editor, a deskman, and news editor before becoming editor in chief in 1972.

When he retired in 2004, he continued being with the Bulletin corporation as a member of the board and an editorial consultant.

He received many awards. He was elected president of the National Press Club twice, for the 1982 to1983 and the 1983 to 1984 terms.

His passing further diminishes the roll of Filipino newspaper editors who were born before World War II.
We urge Times readers to join us in praying for the repose of his soul.

Rest in peace, Ben.