Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto on Tuesday, Jan. 2, said the city government will assess and study the complete ban on illegal firecrackers in the city following the number of fireworks-related incidents (FWRIs) still being recorded in the country.

Mayor Vico Sotto
Sotto stressed that the city's yearly challenge is the selling and use of illegal firecrackers in Pasig where he clarified that there is no whitewashing in the city and instead, the local government unit (LGU) continues to improve its programs and initiatives should there is still room for improvement.
Based on the city's initial report in FWRIs, the number of incidents is still substantial but not as high as the previous years. He also expressed his hope that next year, the number of incidents will be decreased further.
Another issue that Pasig faces in pushing for the total ban on illegal firecrackers in the city is its geographical location. The city is located in the center of Metro Manila, making it difficult to track violators because they would just have to cross the street, then they will be in the jurisdiction of another city.
Lack of uniformed personnel
The mayor also underscored the need to increase its uniformed personnel to further help in mitigating not just criminality in the city, but also the enforcement of the different ordinances being implemented with regards to the illegal use, manufacture, and distribution of firecrackers in Pasig.
He commended the Philippine National Police — Pasig (PNP-Pasig) for doing a good job in keeping Pasigueños safe and secured.
In the Department of Health's (DOH) latest report, there were 212 new FWRI cases. The new cases range from 1 to 71 years old (median age: 22), with almost eight out of ten (166.79 percent) cases that are male. Ninety seven percent (206.97 percent) of these new cases occurred at home and in the streets.
Almost half (102.49 percent) was due to legal fireworks while less than half of the cases (94.45 percent) had active involvement. There are six new amputation cases, bringing the total to 17. There were 222 (122, 28 percent) cases with eye injuries, leading to one confirmed blindness case. There is also one more hearing loss case, bringing the total to two. There have been no additional reports of ingestion thus far.
There are now 443 injuries overall, with 441 due to fireworks, 1 due to Watusi ingestion, and 1 SBI. Almost six out of every ten cases come from NCR (254.57 percent). Following NCR in rank as to number of cases are Ilocos Region (36.8 percent), Central Luzon (35.8 percent), CALABARZON (29.7 percent).