Costly celebrations
Driving home on the afternoon of Dec. 31, after a hasty shopping trip to Greenhills for castañas, grapes and provisions for the New Year’s feasting, we found ourselves caught in a traffic jam on White Plains. The “cause of traffic” soon became obvious: a row of stalls selling fireworks and vehicles parked in front of them, colonizing three lanes of the four-lane road.
Even more annoying was the presence of men wearing violet T-shirts marked “QC police” who were “directing” traffic. They were actually facilitating the movement of the firecracker buyers who were backing out of their slots or waiting to park in front of the stalls, while merely waving along those of us who were just driving by.
“And I thought the government was discouraging the sale of firecrackers,” I wondered aloud. Just minutes before, Acting Health Secretary Janette Garin was making the rounds of radio shows reporting on the toll of deaths and injuries due to early New Year revelry and advising families to be careful in the use of pyrotechnics, if not avoiding such dangerous activities altogether.
But how could we discourage firecracker use when police themselves facilitate the trade? And where were the fire trucks and marshals
supposed to be deployed wherever such fiery explosives are sold?
I espied an adult male walking down the sidewalk from the stalls carrying huge bags filled with all sorts of fireworks. This was shocking by itself, but he was accompanied by a young boy, presumably his son. So how was he going to explain the dangers of careless handling of fireworks to the boy? And whose fault was it should the boy end up losing a finger or a hand because of fireworks?
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The statistics speak for themselves.
Injuries and fatalities due to fireworks accidents last New Year’s Eve went down by 40 percent compared to last year’s figures, said Garin, and 36 percent down from the five-year average from 2009-2013.
Still, it’s not time for self-congratulations yet. Nearly 600 cases (593) of injuries due to pyrotechnic accidents were reported, although one case—that of a woman who was poisoned after friends spiked her drink with a watusi fragment—was by no means accidental.
Even more alarming were the 30 cases traced to guns fired during the New Year revelry. Among these cases was that of 11-year-old Jercy Decym Buenafe Tabaday in Tayum, Abra, who died after being hit in the head by a stray bullet said to be fired from a .45-caliber pistol.
Authorities said the Tayum police’s guns were inspected soon after and none of them had been fired. But one wonders if authorities had bothered to check the unofficial or unlicensed firearms owned by policemen, or went out of the way to track legal or illegal guns in the town that had been fired around midnight last Dec. 31.
When it comes to fireworks and other “blazing” means to welcome the new year, the government seems to be speaking from both sides of its mouth. There are earnest appeals to the public to stop buying fireworks, and the Department of Health spends millions on ads and personal appearances to discourage the practice. And yet we have policemen facilitating the trade in firecrackers just outside the walls of the country’s biggest military camp!
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Also cause for concern is the statement of Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma that proposals for a ban on the sale of firecrackers need to be “studied carefully” before Malacañang acts on the problem.
“We will wait for the recommendation of the DOH and we will discuss it once the issue has been raised,” Coloma was quoted in news reports. Well, wait. Hasn’t the health department made crystal clear its position on fireworks? I’m sure officials know where to put the millions currently being spent every New Year’s Eve and the days before it on fielding doctors in emergency rooms, providing the tools needed to cut off infected limbs, sew them back on, and prevent tetanus and other infections.
Then, without the distractions offered by firecracker sales and injuries, law enforcers could better focus on arresting the idiots who insist on firing their guns to “welcome” the New Year.
What’s there to study? Sure, hundreds face the risk of losing their means of livelihood, and firecracker manufacturers, including importers, could lose a lucrative revenue source. But the “sin tax,” for instance, likewise threatened the income of tobacco farmers and manufacturers. What happened was that, weighing the costs and benefits of smoking and tobacco sales, the government decided it could not only earn more but save more, with health costs related to lung ailments and related health problems cut down when smokers found their noxious habit too costly.
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Clearly, the dangers to life and limbs caused by firecrackers and indiscriminate firing of guns far outweigh the temporary “high” of a fiery, noisy and blazing welcome as we mark the transition from one year to the next.
I will admit that in the last few years our family has cut out our budget for pyrotechnics and instead have been content to stand outside our homes watching the show put on by our neighbors. Why can’t more families do the same? Why can’t we be content to join public gatherings where local governments or commercial interests hold fireworks shows for public consumption and delight?
I admit, a fireworks show limned against the dark sky provides a thrill like no other. But these days it is a thrill that comes at too high a cost.
