When the Cotabato City Government put its foot down last November and said that firecrackers are banned, it was not difficult for Cotabatenos to follow. People knew the disadvantages all along -- they just waited to be told not just by anybody, but by the Mayor of the City.
New Year is just a few hours away; and according to what I heard on the radio this morning, no firecracker injuries have been reported yet. That's a happy outcome of Executive Order 130. I hope the midnight revelry to meet 2015 would not break the zero-casualty target.
December 2014 is remarkable for a significant handful of things: the firecracker ban meant relative quiet -- though a few hard-heads continue to exist.
I also noticed that driving around the downtown area on December 24 and 25 was also breeze it seemed Pacquiao had a fight. No traffic? On 24 & 25?
From where we live, the quiet that the firecracker ban provided was ironically shattered by nine days of unregulated volume from the outdoor speaker system of the Rosary Heights Church for Misa de Gallo. I wonder if my ranting on social media had any effect since the dawn rosary after Christmas Day has now seemingly toned down.
For all the noise that Cotabatenos have either been subjected through or induced upon themselves, I hope the firecracker ban is a good sign that things are being put in order in the city.
Now if open-pipe midnight drag racers will also be arrested, we can also say that the city is in order.
There is peace in order.
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Cotabato City
29 December 2014
Aveen Acuña-Gulo wrote a column “The Voice” for the Mindanao Cross from 1991-2006.
She likes to challenge stereotypes. “Don’t worry about my opinions,” she says. “It won’t make a dent to the conventional.”
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