TUBA, Benguet – Mayor Ignacio Rivera disclosed the municipal government will not issue any special permit to individuals and groups wanting to sell firecrackers and pyrotechnic materials in the municipality to help in the government’s campaign against unsafe revelry during the Yuletide season.
Rivera, who is a first-term local chief executive, said President Rodrigo R. Duterte already issued a firm directive against the use of firecrackers and pyrotechnic materials during the yuletide season, thus, he decided not to issue special permits for the same of these materials.
“We have to abide by the orders of the President. We will no longer issue special permits to those individuals and groups applying to sell firecrackers and pyrotechnic materials in any place in the municipality,”Rivera stressed.
For the past three years, some 20 vendors have been using the frontage of a construction firm along Marcos highway to sell these fireworks and pyrotechnic materials after Baguio City Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan declined to issue them special permits to sell.
According to Mayor Rivera, his decision is part of the efforts of the municipal government to ensure the safety of the people from the said dangerous products and to help reduce the pollutants in the air, especially during Yuletide revelry, thus, these prospective sellers need not file any application to sell such products,
He added his action is part of the town’s cooperation with what Baguio City started, and he exhorts the local chief executives in the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay (BLISTT) to empower local residents to embrace a new way of celebrating the Yuletide season.
He claimed the smoke coming from the exploded firecrackers and pyrotechnic materials are considered to be hazardous to health, especially among those suffering from respiratory tract infections.
He appealed to his constituents to start looking for other ways to celebrate the Yuletide season apart from exploding firecrackers and pyrotechnic materials so as not to put themselves and their neighbors in danger.
By HENT