IT’S good that no firecrackers/pyrotechnics ban has been in effect in Cebu or elsewhere for the first Christmas season in the country under the administration of Rodrigo Duterte.
The President has not come up yet with a policy that would apply the Davao City experience to the other parts of the country. The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) is going after firecrackers/pyrotechnics makers but only those who fail in safety standards in the workplace.
In Cebu City, firecrackers/pyrotechnics will be sold at the South Road Properties (SRP) like what happened under the previous administration of Michael Rama. Mayor Tomas Osmeña has, however, limited the number of sellers to only 50 and the sale will be supervised by the firm that won the bid to put up the “Kasadya sa Sugbo” karnabal.
Meaning that only minor changes in the Christmas and New Year rites are in place here even with a new administration in place.
We don’t know, however, if the Duterte administration will eventually gather the political will to ban the use of firecrackers/pyrotechnic for next year’s Christmas and New Year celebrations. But I believe such a ban will be difficult to implement fully nationwide. Going after the makers of firecrackers/pyrotechnics will only drive them underground like before. And those who want to explode firecackers will play a cat-and-mouse game with law enforcers.
I also doubt if law enforcers will be aggressive in going after firecrackers/pyrotechnics makers and those who explode these. I mean, the effectiveness of the ban depends on the genuineness of the authorities’ effort to implement it. It’s like the case of swertres masiao and gambling like tigbakay and hantak, which are essentially being allowed to proliferate.
But granting that the ban will be fully implemented, what will happen? I don’t think the people will be limited to using horns or banging pots and pans during the eve of Christmas and New Year. I realized that two mornings ago when a neighbor tested the “lantaka” he fashioned from softdrinks/beer aluminum cans, the one fed with denatured alcohol (the Flying Tiger variety) to produce a booming sound. That will be the noise-maker of choice without firecrackers/pyrotechnics.
This is actually a different “lantaka” from the one I was familiar with when I was a kid growing up in Argao town and during our early days in Sitio Kawayan in Barangay Sambag 2 in Cebu City.
Those were made from thick bamboo stems longer than three feet long and fed with kerosene. They are the poor man’s version of a cannon, with a little hole near the base to light the kerosene. You blow air into those holes before inserting the flame.
In those days, bamboo plants grew especially in our old Sambag 2 village (that was precisely why it got the name “Kawayan”). In those days, we were even able to make a toy called “luthang” that was fed with either wet paper or unripe mansanitas fruits. We would divide ourselves into groups and fire at each other using the “luthang.”
But back to the aluminum can “lantaka.” It became the craze after it was invented and introduced to Christmas and New Year revelers. If I remember it right, its use also caused some burning accidents, after all, these are homemade and its makers do not follow safety standards. I think the Department of Health (DOH) also banned its use. That’s why I prefer the bamboo stem “lantaka,” which is relatively safe.
(khanwens@gmail.com/@khanwens)