The Rizal Police Provincial Office (PPO) has been inspecting stalls to ensure that they are complying with laws regulating the sale of firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices.
PPO director Col. Felipe Maraggun has been leading his personnel and the police station officials in the inspection of stores and stalls selling New Year revelry items in some parts of the province.
In one of his surprise inspections, Maraggun personally found out that a stall on a highway in Antipolo fronting Robinson’s Antipolo has a box of prohibited firecrackers, prompting the police official to confiscate the items and place the stall holder under investigation.
Several boxes of the banned items were also seized from some vendors in the vicinity of Cogeo Market in Antipolo City on Friday, Dec. 29.
(Photo courtesy of Rizal PPO's PIO)
As of this writing, the office of Col. Maraggun has not yet released a statement as to how many prohibited firecrackers have been confiscated and how many sellers have been made liable.
In Angono, the office of Mayor Jeri Mae Calderon said firecrackers and fireworks areas have been designated by the municipal government to ensure the safety of the New Year’s Eve revelers.
The confiscated firecrackers are scheduled for destruction at the PPO headquarters on Dec. 31.
Violators of Republic Act 7183 or the law on regulation on the sale, manufacture, distribution and use of firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices may face a fine of P20,000 to P30,000 and/or imprisonment of six months to one year.
Then President Rodrigo Duterte issued Executive Order No. 28 regulating the use of the New Year's Eve items in community fireworks area.