President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night urged the public to skip Christmas festivities this year to keep safe amid the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.
In a taped public address, Duterte appealed to Filipinos to sacrifice holiday traditions this year to avoid spreading or catching the disease.
The President also said he was considering a total ban on firecrackers by 2021.
“I might ban firecrackers next December because it is really a dangerous thing and for reasons of public safety and health,” Duterte said in his weekly address aired late Monday night.
The Palace urged firecracker industry workers to look for alternative livelihood opportunities.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the President’s warning Monday night was “an advance notice” to workers in the industry.
Duterte said he could impose the total ban by mid-2021.
"You had parties every Christmas. Would you be kind enough just to skip the festivities? Avoid them for now. You avoid it because it is for your own good and for the good of the community and eventually for the good of the country,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
He acknowledged how Filipinos loved hosting get-togethers but noted that they have had many occasions to celebrate in the past.
“Look at it this way, all of the Christmas[es] of your lifetime, it’s only now that the government is asking this from you. And this is for you, not for the government,” he said.
Duterte said the government’s mandate is to ensure that all Filipinos are safe and healthy.
Prevention is the best defense against COVID-19, he said.
“It is not a 100 percent guarantee that if you follow all of this you will not get COVID, but your chances of avoiding the contamination would be greater. The odds would be in your favor,” he said.
Duterte lauded health front-liners in the fight against COVID-19 and asked them to continue being dedicated to their jobs.
“For the workers, especially front-liners, the doctors and the nurses who have to face the sick people, we salute you many times and please continue to do so and may God bless you,” he said.
Last month, Duterte renewed his call to strictly follow minimum health protocols to prevent a post-Christmas holiday surge of COVID-19 cases.
Earlier, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Christmas parties might be a cause for a super spreader event.
“We do not want that to happen, because it might cause further infections in the community," she said.
The DOH recommended that gatherings must be exclusively with household members only.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque reminded the public to refrain from high-risk celebrations during Christmas and New Year—including big parties and karaoke singing.
“For a change, let us opt to have a solemn celebration with joyful Christmas songs from our favorite artists played on radios or online music platforms,” Duque said.
According to a recent study published in the Aerosol Science and Technology Journal, loud singing increases viral particle spread by 448 percent compared to normal talking, Duque added.
Duque also called on all local government chiefs to strictly enforce and implement the minimum public health standards in their localities such as wearing face masks and shields, regular hand washing, and observing a one-meter physical distance to avoid contracting or transferring the virus.
The President also raised the pyrotechnics issue last year. In 2017, he signed Executive Order 28 that limited the use of firecrackers.
The EO confined the use of the pyrotechnics to "community fireworks."
The EcoWaste Coalition, meanwhile, urged local government units to enact and enforce ordinances banning the use of firecrackers and fireworks to prevent accidental injuries, environmental pollution and COVID-19 transmission during the New Year revelry.
“With the safety of their constituents and the environment in mind, we urge our city and municipal officials to quickly enact ordinances that will prohibit the use of firecrackers, fireworks and other pyrotechnic devices in celebrating the New Year,” said Thony Dizon, chemical safety campaigner for the EcoWaste Coalition.
“The adoption and implementation of such ordinances, we believe, will prevent a repeat of the bloody and dirty tradition of heralding the New Year with explosives and noxious fumes,” he added.
