“I must commend DOT Secretary Cristina Garcia-Frasco for exceeding expectations of foreign arrivals for this year”
As the New Year approaches, people are now talking about the many injuries caused by the New Year’s revelry, with the penchant of Filipinos playing around with all kinds of pyrotechnics, especially firecrackers.
Firecrackers are a hang-over from the ancient Chinese from Mainland China who came to the Philippines, mostly from Amoy, now called Xiamen, actually the nearest point to the Philippines from China ,where most of the ancestors of well-known Filipino-Chinese families came from, like Tan, Go, Lim, Lee, and other mono-syllabic names.
Firecrackers were used to ward off evil spirits.
However, through the years, firecrackers developed into other forms like what we have today, which are no longer fun, but deadly, so much so that every year-end in the Philippines, hundreds of injuries and even deaths have been recorded.
Unless firecrackers and other forms of pyrotechnics are totally banned, the same rigmarole will happen again.
My gulay, I am told hospitals are now preparing to accept firecracker injuries unless, as I said, President Marcos Jr. will issue an executive order totally banning firecrackers.
And it can be done.
In many instances, together with my wife, we have gone to Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai for New Year’s Eve and ironically, these cities have since banned firecrackers on New Year’s Eve.
Instead, they have made the revelry on New Year’s Eve even something like a tourist attraction.
You should do it some time, and go to other places for the New Year.
It’s truly a sight to see with the bay of Hong Kong is ablaze with all kinds of pyrotechnics on New Year’s Eve.
We can do the same here in the Philippines, like having Manila Bay’s skyline ablaze with all kinds of pyrotechnics, instead of going through every New Year’s Eve with people, mostly young adults, getting rushed to the ER because of injuries, some of them fatal.
Santa Banana, yes, we have an executive order regulating the use of pyrotechnics, especially firecrackers that can kill.
Despite efforts of authorities to control them, somehow many peddlers in Bocaue, Bulacan still manage to sell those deadly firecrackers.
Even now, I am told cars are lining up in Bocaue to buy firecrackers for the New Year’s revelry.
It gets worse when pyrotechnics get imported and get sold underground.
Santa Banana, the entry of those deadly pyrotechnics can even become a threat to national security.
Despite attempts of local governments to confine New Year’s Eve revelry to designated places, there’s no way to stop people from playing with firecrackers in every street corner or even public places.
There are reports from Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos to have Local Government Units totally ban firecrackers for the New Year’s revelry.
I don’t know if he can succeed, unless the use of firecrackers can be made some kind of violation of the law.
Something must be done to stop people, whether by the police or the military, to stop firing guns during the New Year’s Eve revelry. Santa Banana, those guns could kill.
Praise and apology
So far, the number of tourist arrivals to the Philippines has exceeded the Department of Tourism targets.
This is certainly good news considering that the COVID-19 pandemic had almost killed tourism as a driver of the country’s economy.
I must commend DOT Secretary Cristina Garcia-Frasco for exceeding expectations of foreign arrivals for this year.
The DOT records showed tourist arrivals of over five million, which can make the Philippines even exceed that of other Southeast Asian countries.
For this, I must commend Frasco, who I even wanted should resign after that fiasco during the launching of the DOT’s slogan “Love the Philippines” when the advertising agency contracted by Frasco showed stock photos not of the tourist destinations in the country, but that of other countries.
I must confess I blamed Frasco for it, and I had wanted her to resign. I hope she accepts my apology.
With the rehabilitation and modernization of the NAIA and improvements of domestic airports and infrastructure leading to tourist destinations, we can expect the country to be the leading tourist destination in this region.
Again, I must commend the DOT and Frasco.