Enforcement needed, not new laws

It seems to me, rather sadly, that our lawmakers—whether greenhorn or veteran, lawyer or nonlawyer—still believe this country needs new laws to minimize injuries from firecrackers. And so, Sen. Nancy Binay has filed a bill criminalizing the giving or selling of these items to children, while Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago wants a specially designated place for fireworks, away from residential areas (“New Year’s Eve tally

of injuries increasing,” Front Page, 1/3/14).

With all due respect, alas, these lady senators may be either just seeking publicity mileage or are totally out of touch with the incorrigible realities in this problem. I mean, what we need are not really new laws but stricter implementation and enforcement of the existing ones!

Consider this: Both seller and user of forbidden drugs and illegal firecrackers are punishable under our laws. But why is it that only the law on illegal drugs seems to apply, not the law on illegal firecrackers? To be more specific, when have we seen a user—ah, forget about the seller who are able to bribe most police officers—of illegal firecrackers ever arrested by the authorities in the same way that drug users are outright put behind bars? This brings me to my thesis.

Instead of passing fresh laws that will only end up publicly sneezed at, why don’t we ask the police, come each New Year’s Eve or earlier, to stay in hospitals, wait for people injured for using illegal firecrackers, then arrest them soon after they have been treated? Can there be any clearer evidence of violation of the firecracker law than the injury they sustained? This proposal may not totally eliminate our single most serious New Year’s Eve’s woe, but I am sure it would minimize it more than by passing new laws that, let’s face it, are only better written than enforced.

—RUDY L. CORONEL,

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