Correspondent

MALOLOS—As New Year approaches there is an equivalent rise in the sale of pyrotechnic products. There is also a significant increase of activity in the fireworks industry.  

Sadly, the industry performance is no longer as it used to be. Fourteen years after its legalization, the industry is plagued by stiff competition from smuggled pyrotechnics from China.              

But what hurts most is that local manufacturers seem unable to modernize production facilities with stringent safety features.             

The problem has not eluded the attention of Bulacan Gov. Josie de la Cruz.  She noted that the rampant and seemingly unstoppable smuggling of pyrotechnics is slowly killing the local industry. This is to the detriment of about 100,000 individuals in Bulacan alone, excluding those from other provinces.           

The fireworks industry has taken its roots here, and the town of Bocaue has long been known as the fireworks capital of the country. With its legalization in 1992 the industry has spread to other parts of the country, making billions of pesos in annual sales, including those of its allied industries that benefit hundreds of thousands of microentrepreneurs. 

Local manufacturers and dealers of pyrotechnics usually go full blast in the last four months of the year, otherwise known as the “Ber” months from September to December.         

This seasonal phenomenon has changed of late. Vimie Erese, president of the Philippine Pyrotechnic Manufacturers and Dealers Association Inc. (PPMDAI), said that production of locally made pyrotechnic products dropped by 50 percent this year.            

Erese noted that finished products mostly coming from China have already eaten into a large portion of the local market. Thus, many local manufacturers have reportedly turned to other businesses in search of more profitable concerns than sticking it out with the “dying” local fireworks industry.              

Local stakeholders are wondering whether the law has also mandated the National Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to monitor and implement the firecracker law. They claim agents of these entities have lately been doing inspection rounds in Bulacan.             

They claimed that the two agencies should set their time and efforts on the entry of smuggled Chinese-made pyrotechnic products, now openly being sold wholesale in Divisoria district and along Ongpin Street in Manila. They wants officials of the CIDG and NBI to raid known wholesalers in these areas so that the banned items no longer reach retailers in Bulacan.               

It is also a common perception among local stakeholders that the unabated entry of the smuggled products has led to the slump in production and sales of locally manufactured pyrotechnics.    

For its part, the provincial government of Bulacan, and the Philippine Pyrotechnics Manufacturers and Dealers Association Inc. (PPMDAI) and other concerned government agencies, have been trying to upgrade the industry since it was legalized.             

Because of an in-depth analysis of the industry and the research and development efforts to help local manufacturers and dealers done by the PPMDAI, the Philippines for the first time joined the world’s largest fireworks competition at the Macau International Fireworks Display Contest on October 10, 1996.           

The police, the Pyrotechnic Regulatory Board of Bulacan, the PPMDAI and other concerned government agencies have been pushing an upgrade for the local fireworks industry by sponsoring seminar workshops for several years now.               

De la Cruz has also tapped the Departments of Trade and Industry and of Science and Technology for product standardization and necessary technology applications, to help the industry move up to international specifications.    

Despite these efforts, many local manufacturers insist on employing the technology handed to them by their forefathers that is more than a hundred years old and already banned in other countries.    

Neptali Guballa, committee chairman of the product standard of PPMDAI, told BusinessMirror that the enactment of RA 7183 has given the industry the semblance of legality, but the many provisions of the law on safety and other regulations need further adjustments in order to address the problems that beset the industry.

If no immediate action is taken, hundreds of thousands involved in the industry could be listed as jobless, compounding the economic crunch, Guballa added.     

Meanwhile, Jerry Caguingin of the Pyrotechnic Regulatory Board has noted that a local manufacturer based in San Rafael town has made headway in the industry.   

Caguingin said that Dragon Fireworks has modernized its production facility up to international standards.               

“In fact it has already penetrated the world market and . . .  started exporting . . .  to the European market,” Caguingin said, adding that it is the only fireworks manufacturer in the country that was able to do so.   

Joven Ong, an official of Dragon Fireworks, said they began exporting their products to Europe and Micronesia this year. Next year, they will export fireworks to the US.

For the industry to recover from its slump, manufacturers should now start producing “quality products, for these will not be affected by the entry of cheap smuggled products which are of poor quality,” Ong said.               

“Our company sees to it that our products pass international standards. In fact, we have several professional pyrotechnic consultants to oversee our production lines,” Ong said.      

Ong said his company is willing to help modernize the local fireworks industry. 

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Cracker makers hurt by smuggling

MALOLOS—As New Year approaches there is an equivalent rise in the sale of pyrotechnic products. There is also a significant increase of activity in the fireworks industry.