Zero-casualty

 

BURNS and amputation and other firecracker-related injuries that year-after-year plague us will not stop unless we ban the firecrackers. A doable strategy to achieve that is through the municipal and city government levels – and there’s Davao City to look at as an example with its local government unit having successfully implemented a complete ban on firecrackers in the last 12 years.

There are still attempts in Davao to sneak in an explosion or two to welcome the New Year, but the police, with help from community folks who report violations, usually catch these culprits who more often than not turn out to be children. It is interesting to note that similarly, almost half of the more than 100 people treated in government hospitals in Pangasinan for firecracker-related injuries were children between the ages of five and 14.  The supposed fun that firecrackers bring into the new year revelry is in fact putting at risk and hurting our children.

Individual towns and cities should consider banning firecrackers to achieve zero-casualty during a celebration wherein we are supposed to be making a fresh and better beginning. If a total ban sounds like making New Year’s eve too boring, a compromise could be having a fireworks display in designated areas managed by the local government and sponsored by commercial establishments. This means minimizing the risks of injuries, ensuring the safety of residents and marketing exposure for the sponsors.

As for stray bullets fired indiscriminately by fools, hopefully the new laws on gun ownership that takes effect this month will be properly implemented so that news headlines on the first day of the year no longer have to be of senseless wounds and deaths.

 

*          *          *          *          *          *

Correct call

 

“CONVERT the corrupt” came the call of Socrates Villegas, the Lingayen-Dagupan archbishop and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines in his New Year message.

There is no doubt that the corrupt steal.  Now the question:  Is one corrupt politician/government official converted if he returned what he had stolen?  Or, is the corrupt converted if he stopped stealing — after he had already stolen, repeatedly, people’s money?

But then also, who will convert the corrupt?  The corrupt will convert himself?  How?

We see only one correct way to have the corrupt converted:  Resignation.   After that, he lives a life of piety and distributing his loot to the needy and deprived until it hurts.

And with every “your honor” that might be seen resigning to heed the archbishop’s correct call, Congress, finally emptied to the core, will forthwith be renamed from a House of Thieves to a House of Prayer.

Back to Homepage

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments