Cotabato City bans use of firecrackers

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=947341
• Saturday, December 10, 2016

By John Unson (philstar.com)

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The iron-fisted mayor signed an edict that outlawed the use of firecrackers for New Year and Eid'l Fit'r revelries.

Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, chairperson of the city peace and order council, also regulated the use of pyrotechnics in special events as part of her administration's community-protection efforts.

Local peace advocacy groups and religious blocs were elated with the mayor's move, the first ever in the city's more than 50-year political history.

Halima Satol Ibrahim, city information officer, told The STAR Friday the local police had been ordered to enforce the ban strictly based on Executive Order 185 which the mayor signed recently. Close Ad X

She said the measure applies to all city residents, the Christians, the Muslims and non-Muslim indigenous people.

Guiani-Sayadi, a practicing lawyer, also asked the police and the Army's 5th Special Forces Battalion helping secure the 37 barangays here to arrest revelers who would use guns to greet the New Year.

Local residents have for generations been fond of firing pistols and assault rifles overhead as they celebrate the New Year's Day and the Eid'l Fit'r that marks the culmination of the Ramadhan season.

There have been recorded deaths from stray bullets and cases of serious firecracker injuries in past decades.

Guiani-Sayadi was elected vice mayor during the May 9, 2016 local polls and assumed as city mayor after the demise in September of her brother, Japal, more known here as "Jojo," then serving his third and last term.

Muslim clerics said the ban on sale and use of firecrackers in the city was rational and attuned to Islamic teachings on simplicity in celebrating special events and religious holidays.

Ustadz Esmael Ebrahim said nowhere in the Qur'an and in the teachings of Mohammad, touted as "progenitor of Islam," can one find a phrase urging Muslims to commemorate holidays and special events extravagantly.

"There is nothing about the need for Muslims to be 'noisy' in merry-makings either," Ebrahim said.

Leaders of the Catholic congregations here also positively welcomed the ban on firecrackers.

In an advisory, the mayor's office said local residents have to secure permission first from the city government for the use of regulated pyrotechnics at nighttime.

The permitted use of pyrotechnics shall be supervised by local personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection.