Regulation of Firecrackers

- Executive No. 28 - “regulation and control of the use of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic
devices”

PROS:
- According to INQ: fewer explosions; a shorter period of risk (unlike before when the firecrackers
go off almost as soon as sun sets, last New Year’s Eve the explosions and the fireworks were
mostly confined to the last half hour before midnight and about a quarter of an hour past it);
hardly any “gunpowder haze” the morning after (on particularly bad years, the post-New Year’s
Eve haze was so thick it would shut down the Ninoy Aquino International Airport or delay some
flights).
- The DOH reported 604 firecracker injuries then, the first holiday season under the Duterte
administration. The other day, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III reported only 191 injuries
this season — and no deaths.
- This is the right attitude for a responsible government official to take. Whether the number of
people injured is 191 or 373, that is still a whole lot of avoidable health emergencies.
- Government policy in the campaign to reduce the number of firecracker-related injuries, as it
now stands, is a robust combination of the following: a reasonable compromise (EO 28
mandates that the use of firecrackers be “confined to community fireworks displays”), vigorous
implementation (by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, among other
institutions), a strong publicity campaign, and a health-oriented mindset (the objective, as
President Duterte’s own order states, is “to minimize the risk of injuries and casualties”).

CONS:
- This is a deep-seated cultural reflex, the instinct to celebrate the death of the old year and the
birth of the new one with as much noise as possible.

ISABEL DUTERTE’s PHOTOSHOOT

PROS:

CONS:

- Executive Order No. 310 (2004); First, any attempt to discuss a simple legal idea will always
descend to pointless, misinformed hairsplitting. We see law not as simple but weighty concepts,
but how clever it must be to pull obscure technicalities from forgotten pieces of paper.

FEDERALISM
-

PROS:
- There is no dispute that the Philippines’ fundamental problem is the concentration of power and
wealth in Imperial Manila. And both sides of the federalism debate agree that the only way to
break this up is to establish a robust decentralized governance framework.
- Empowering local government, both in fiscal and administrative terms, is an undeniable
requisite to spur regional development.
CONS:
- But designing the specifics of this decentralized government structure is where this unanimity
ends.
- More importantly, the Department of the Interior and Local Government itself has a ready list of
amendments to the Local Government Code (LGC) aimed at enhancing fiscal distribution and
administrative devolution. Hence, to simply institute these improvements would arguably be
more practical and logical than a total redesign of the entire bureaucratic organization.
- But there is credence as well with pushing for comprehensive improvements to be cemented in
a new constitution. Moreover, some necessary reforms require constitutional amendment—for
instance, the regulation of local dynasties.
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