GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 31 December) — Police personnel seized around P120,000 worth of illegal firecrackers and pyrotechnics in a series of operations Tuesday afternoon in Polomolok town in South Cotabato and neighboring areas.
Insp. Richel Cabuslay, operations chief of Polomolok municipal police station, said they recovered the illegal items during a surprise inspection at around 3 p.m. of several firecracker stalls at the designated selling area along the national highway in Sitio Matin-ao of Barangay Silway 8.
He said the operation was based on a directive issued by the South Cotabato Police Provincial Office and the Police Regional Office (PRO) 12.
“We found the illegal firecrackers and fireworks hidden inside and at the back of the stalls,” he said.
The police station did not release an itemized list or inventory of the confiscated items, which were initially valued at around P100,000.
The illegal items seized were the banned piccolo, sawa, Judas belt, five-star, OG, lolo thunder and kamara.
These items are among the prohibited firecrackers and fireworks listed in Republic Act 7183 or the “Act Regulating the Sale, Manufacture, Distribution and Use of Firecrackers and other Pyrotechnic Devices.”
“We immediately destroyed the confiscated items by soaking them in water containers,” Cabuslay said.
In Koronadal City, police operatives also recovered assorted illegal fireworks inside a passenger van parked near the designated selling area in Barangay Sto. Nino.
The seized items comprised 35 bundles of sky rockets, eight boxes of sky rockets, 61 small fountains, two large fountains and 49 pieces of 100-shot medium fountains.
Supt. Nestor Salcedo, Koronadal City police chief, said the illegal fireworks were owned by a trader from M’lang town in North Cotabato identified as Jomari Laran
“He failed to present the required permit to sell the fireworks and his permit to transport them was already expired,” he said.
In this city, joint operatives from the city police and the PRO-12’s Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB) confiscated various illegal firecrackers and fireworks that were sold in stalls inside the city’s central public market.
The seized items consisted of eight reams of piccolo, 45 pieces of kwitis, two rounds of Judas belt, 45 boxes of sparklers and three fountains.
Insp. Carl Jayson Baynosa, RPSB-12 platoon leader, said they seized the firecrackers and fireworks as the public market was not a designated selling area.
He said the selling of these items are only allowed at the city’s oval plaza, which was identified by the city government as the only selling area in the city. (MindaNews)