BAN ON FIRECRACKERS BACKED BY PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said New Year revellers should be discouraged from buying and using firecrackers even as he backed the calls for banning these dangerous materials.

"The manufacture, sale and use of firecrackers should be absolutely banned for endangering the lives and limbs of users and bystanders. It's most foolish to simply prepare hospitals for victims of firecracker accidents." Pimentel said.

He noted the proliferation of substandard or defective firecrackers or pyrotechnics that make their users more prone to accidents and injuries. Such problem, he said, could be traced to the inability of the government to enforce rules and standards for the production of these materials.

Firecrackers are very dangerous because they are made up of the same materials used in explosives, bombs and other armaments.

If at all, the government should restrict firework displays to specific areas under severe limitations as they do in other civilized countries, Pimentel said.