By Perla Lena/PNA
ILOILO CITY — The Department of Health’s Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD) 6 (Western Visayas) intends an early kick-off of its campaign against the use of firecrackers in 2019 amid a slight decrease in firecracker-related injuries.
“As early as October, we will be conducting an awareness campaign per province,” said Dr. May Ann Sta. Lucia, Violence and Injury Prevention Program coordinator of CHD-6, in a phone interview Tuesday.
A monitoring of the DOH sentinel sites revealed 48 firecracker-related injuries from December 26 last year to Jan. 5, 2019 – some 17 of which are within the six- to 10-year-old age group or 35 percent of the entire recorded incidents.
The sentinel sites included the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC), Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Hospital (CLMMH), Western Visayas Sanitarium and the Don Jose Monfort Sustiguer Memorial Hospital.
The highest number of cases came from Negros Occidental with 15, followed by Iloilo with 13, Bacolod City with eight, and Iloilo City with seven.
Sta. Lucia said there was only a slight decrease when compared with the 49 cases recorded during the 2017-2018 period.
She attributed the incidents to the presence of firecracker factories in the region and presence of international ports; good reporting of sentinel sites; non-apprehension of users; and the absence of a total ban on firecrackers.
She added that the use of firecrackers is a Filipino tradition, thus behavior change could not be done overnight.
Sta. Lucia said that as part of the awareness campaign per province, they would be talking to presidents of the Association of Barangay Captains (ABCs) and probably selected barangay captains or those with high cases of firecracker-related injuries for them to disseminate the information.
Moreover, she will be talking with the Philippine National Police (PNP) regarding the enforcement of Executive Order 28, series of 2017 that limits the use of firecrackers and Republic Act No. 7183.
She said that in May, they will come up with a “prototype ordinance” that they would like to cascade to local government units in the region.
“The ordinance will be patterned after the Executive Order on the prohibition of the residential use of firecrackers,” she said, adding that they will just choose the provisions that are applicable to the region.
