A police officer shows some of the confiscated firecrackers at the CCPO. /CDN photo Morexette Marie Erram
Cebu City, Philippines – Around P150,000 worth of firecrackers were confiscated by the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) last Monday, December 31.
CCPO director Senior Superintendent Royina Garma, said these firecrackers were found being sold outside Cebu City’s designated firecracker zone at the South Road Properties (SRP).
Garma said law enforcers arrested 26 individuals violating City Ordinance 2290 as well as Republic Act No. 7183 or the Act Regulating the Sale, Manufacture, Distribution, and Use of Firecrackers and other Pyrotechnic Devices.
“This is the first time we’ve told our personnel to arrest anyone selling banned firecrackers, and outside the designated firecracker zone,” Garma said in Cebuano. “Para maramdaman din nila yung ngipin nang batas natin. Kaya andoon sila nag celebrate nang New Year sa kulungan.” (So that they will feel the full force of the law. Now they’ll have to celebrate New Year in prison.)
The designated firecracker zone at the SRP is a three hectare, city-owned property near the boundary of Cebu City and Talisay City.
Garma said they will file formal cases against the suspects for violating RA No. 7183, in relation to Executive Order No. 28 that bans “powerful firecrackers”, before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday, January 3, 2019.
In 2011, the city amended City Ordinance No. 2290, which regulates the distribution, production, and selling of pyrotechnics outside designated areas, and make the SRP as a firecracker zone. It also banned firecrackers from residential areas, power lines and substations. BJO