With help from the Quezon City Police District, the city government has seized various firecrackers worth P128,000.
Mayor Joy Belmonte ordered the city’s Market Development and Administration Department to confiscate the sizable cache of firecrackers as part of the crackdown against the use of firecrackers and pyrotechnics to welcome the New Year.
“I thank our policemen and the MDAD for their untiring deed to enforce the law and make the welcome of 2021 a safe one,” she said.
Belmonte ordered the strict enforcement of Ordinance No. SP 2618 of 2017 prohibiting the use of firecrackers in public places.
The order was also issued in compliance with Metro Manila Council-Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Resolution No. 20-17, banning individual and household use of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices during general community quarantine issued last Dec. 28.
According to QCPD chief Brig. Gen. Danilo Macerin, the number of firecrackers seized was lower compared to last year due to the community quarantine and the ban on the use of firecrackers and pyrotechnics.
Retired police general Elmo San Diego, the city’s Department of Public Order and Safety chief, deployed personnel in the venues granted permits by the Inter-Agency Task Force for Infectious Disease for community fireworks displays — in Eastwood City and Quezon Memorial Circle.
“In a break from tradition, the annual fireworks display at the Quezon Memorial Circle was be virtual, and strictly no individuals were allowed inside the park to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019,” Belmonte said.
