THIS year's Chinese New Year celebration will not include sending lanterns in the sky as the Chinese community in Davao City supports the proposed ordinance to ban balloons and sky lanterns that may harm the environment.
Davao City Chinatown Development Council (DCCDC) public relations officer Jasper Huang said that even without the sky lanterns, the celebration will still be as festive and "torotots" will be an alternative.
"We are in full support to the city government and Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, together with their initiative to ban plastics," Huang said.
"We already eliminated the use of lanterns because we are trying to find a way to make the celebration still lively without plastics or any materials that would damage the environment," he added.
Meanwhile, Chinatown Development Council officer Steve Arquiza said that the elimination of the sky lanterns will not remove the fun of the celebration as they have alternatives and more fun activities.
"As an alternative we have to use other means such as torotots. So manghatag ta og torotots sa mga audience para gamiton nila (So we will distribute torotots to the audience)," Arquiza said, adding that there will also be Chinese lion and dragon dances, loud music, battle of the band, raffle, among others, during the countdown.
"One of the highlights this year, we asked the Chinese Schools to perform the interpretative dance of the history of the Chinese-Filipino in Davao City," he added.
Meanwhile, Huang said that the security will be tight as the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) has committed to deploy 300 personnel and more from the Task Force Davao (TFD) to ensure a peaceful celebration.
"Those who want to celebrate with us, naay mga tikoy na ipanghatag and other goodies. Aside from that, we highlight na mas daghan pa gyud ang ni-support ani nga event ug mas daghan pa gyud ang ni-donate na mga tao (Those who want to celebrate with us, we will give rice cakes and other goodies. Aside from that, we highlight that there are so many individuals who showed support to the celebration and more donations)," he said.
