Less firecracker sales

It was emphatically the impression that less firecrackers were used in celebrating the transition from Year 2008 to 2009. And that became evident as the heavy downpour on New Year’s Eve sort of doused the volume of explosions from pyrotechnics.

Several days before the New Year, police in Negros Occidental and Iloilo seized thousands of pesos worth of illegal pyrotechnics. That may not have addressed the problem posed by firecrackers, but it certainly depressed the volume of sales in public markets and side streets of Bacolod City and Iloilo.

But most of the 200 backyard firecracker makers of Iloilo City admitted a drastic drop in their sales. For one, in Iloilo City there was a plunge in firecracker stocks.

So, too, in Bacolod. The city council earlier had declared a site where the sale of pyrotechnics and firecrackers was considered legal.

Of course, there were a lot of clandestine violations. But the mere fact that they had to do it stealthily had discouraged the sale of firecrackers.

But imported and “safer” pyroctechnics, however, were openly sold in malls and department stores.

Still, the downpour on Dec. 31 sort of discouraged the blasts, although the letup in the rains later enabled thousands of explosions all over Bacolod.

The volume, however, was considerably lower than last year’s. But what was evident was that rockets were more artistic. There were more of the ones that blossomed rather than just exploded in mid-air.

So far, there were no reported victims of stray bullets from outside Bacolod City.

But there was one ugly incident in Iloilo – the arrest of an Army soldier who had figured in a foiled holdup of a delivery van in Barangay Don Esteban, La Paz district.

Lt. Col. David Tan, spokesman of the 3rd Infantry Division, identified the arrested trooper as Pfc. Joebert Aparri, of the 47th Infantry Battalion.

His companion, former Army soldier Sherwin Datiles, allegedly tried to hold up a delivery van of RMG Marketing last Monday.

Tan disclosed that the driver managed to alert the security guard of a nearby subdivision who immediately managed to shoot Aparri in the armpit. The two suspects tried to flee the scene on a motorcycle.

An alert physician of the Iloilo Doctors’ Hospital, however, grew suspicious of Aparri’s wound and informed the police.

Police nabbed Aparri who was found involved in the foiled hijack of the delivery van. Datiles was later traced and arrested by the police. The latter is now detained at the La Paz police station.

The two, both residents of Roxas City, reportedly had two other companions, both still unidentified.

Superintendent Eugenio Espejo, officer-in-charge of the Iloilo police, said the two were tagged in cell phone snatchings on Jalanni and Delgado streets and the robbery of an herbal drug store.

Otherwise, among the most fascinating developments in this year’s Christmas celebration were the outreach social action projects launched by non-government organizations and local government units to lift up the spirit of the poor and the helpless.

The most impressive was the distribution of food packs to some 800 families in Kalibo barangays by the social welfare and development office and the provincial government under Aklan Gov. Carlito Marquez.

Marquez also distributed some P10,000 worth of food packs to indigents of Barangay Mobo, an island village in Kalibo.

In Negros Occidental, the provincial government led by Gov. Isidro Zayco and local government units distributed food and other relief goods to poor residents throughout the province.

Not only that. Zayco also had the provincial board approve an additional P5,000 for government employees after the province got the award for Excellence in Governance from the Regional Development Council.

The past year may have its distressing developments and the incoming year its major challenges, possibly even the dire prospects of OFWs returning home after losing their jobs abroad. But still, there is hope that we shall enjoy a happier New Year. And that is my wish to all my readers. Happy New Year.