Why Filipinos risk injury and death to ring in the new year with dangerous fireworks

As the Philippines counts down to the New Year, authorities are bracing themselves for another familiar increase in injuries and deaths linked to fireworks, despite decades of regulation, annual warnings and stepped-up police raids.\nHealth officials say dozens of people have already been hurt in the run-up to December 31, with more casualties expected as Filipinos usher in the New Year with explosive celebrations that light up streets, backyards and skylines across the country.\nThe Department of Health said as of Saturday, at least 57 people had been treated in government hospitals for firework-related injuries, including children who lost fingers when fireworks exploded in their hands. Police have also reported deaths linked to stray bullets fired into the air during Christmas celebrations.\nDespite these risks, fireworks remain deeply woven into the country’s New Year traditions, driven by a belief that loud noise scares away bad luck and evil spirits.\nEvery year from November onwards, health officials, firefighters and police issue warnings, raid illegal dealers and urge the public to avoid powerful pyrotechnics.\nAnd every December 31, millions of Filipinos pour into the streets or stay in their backyards and set off a vast assortment of fireworks – many of them illegal and most of them dangerous.\n\n“We urge the Philippine National Police and local government units to intensify on-site monitoring and confiscate illegal firecrackers as New Year’s Eve approaches,” Thony Dizon, advocacy and campaign officer of the environmental protection group BAN Toxics, said in a statement on Sunday.\nFilipinos are expected to light up New Year’s Eve with sparklers, miniature explosives, home-made cannons, flares, rockets, pinwheels, starbursts, whistle bombs and Roman candles, alongside costly and elaborate displays.\nA few will also fire guns into the air, a practice police warn carries a high risk of killing or injuring someone when spent bullets fall back to the ground.\nManila in particular is expected to be rocked by near-constant explosions, wreathed in smoke and flashes of light, with injuries mounting as the hours wear on.\nBy New Year’s Day, the city typically wakes to quieter streets shrouded in smog, smelling of gunpowder and littered with scraps of scorched paper.\nThe chaos persists despite a 33-year-old law regulating the manufacture, sale and use of firecrackers, which bans devices considered unsafe, oversized or fitted with dangerously short fuses.\nVendors continue to sell prohibited pyrotechnics that exceed allowed explosive limits or burn too fast to be safely handled, according to police and regulators.\nMany of these fireworks are made in clandestine factories in the central province of Bulacan, a long-established hub of the firecracker industry, before being shipped out and stored in residential neighbourhoods, authorities say.\n\nOn Christmas Day, a 21-year-old female student and a seven-year-old girl were killed in Dagupan City in northwest Luzon when a two-storey house they were walking past suddenly exploded.\nAccording to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report, the building was being used as a repacking site for illegal firecrackers.\nThe Philippine Star reported that one person in Manila was killed by a stray bullet early on December 25, while the health department said two children, aged eight and 16, lost fingers after fireworks exploded in their hands.\nThis year, the Philippine National Police said it had identified 31 specific firecrackers as prohibited and warned it would arrest, fine and jail anyone caught using them.\nThe names of some of the banned items hint at their power: King Kong, Dart Bomb, Super Lolo, Atomic Bomb, Bin Laden, GPH Nuclear and Goodbye Philippines.\nFar from being deterred by police raids, illegal manufacturers regularly introduce new explosives, often giving them names drawn from current events or public figures.\nThis year, authorities flagged powerful devices – some resembling sticks of dynamite – bearing names such as “Zaldy Co”, “Curlee and Sarah Discaya” and “Imee Marcos”, after personalities who have been in the news over alleged corruption scandals.\n\nPolice are also concerned about the spread of boga, modern versions of the traditional bamboo cannon.\nThese improvised devices use PVC or glass pipes and ignite mixtures of calcium carbide, alcohol or gas to produce thunderous explosions, often triggered by toy gun mechanisms.\nBoga are banned because of the high risk of blast and burn injuries, but remain popular in some communities.\nThe Inquirer reported on Saturday that police in the northern city of Tuguegarao seized at least 100 such cannons, while officials warn that online tutorials showing how to build them are easily accessible.\nIn the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, firecrackers are sold openly by street vendors, pop-up stalls and through online advertising, despite periodic crackdowns by police and local governments.\nPrice does little to dampen demand. Small firecrackers can cost under 100 pesos (US$1.70), while elaborate displays run into the hundreds of thousands, with one company offering what it calls a “symphony of lights package” for 208,000 pesos (US$3,540).\nAuthorities say they have tried to limit the damage by designating areas for selling fireworks and clearing common spaces where they can be used.\n\nYet experience suggests that on Wednesday, many Filipinos will set off prohibited firecrackers wherever they choose.\nDespite the toll – injuries, fires, air pollution, terrified pets and streets littered with debris – the attraction remains strong.\n“It’s the sound and the danger, the thrill, it’s so sudden,” said Charley Salonga, 69, human resources head of the construction and engineering firm First Balfour.\nHe understands better than most the risks behind that allure: a firecracker permanently altered his life when he was 15.\n“It was the day of December 31. I was making a firecracker for New Year’s Eve,” he told This Week in Asia.\nAs he compressed the device, it exploded in his hands.\n“I must have tightened it too much and created friction,” he said.\n\nSalonga lost consciousness and was rushed to hospital, where doctors told him the blast had torn off all the fingers of his right hand except his little finger.\n“I was shocked – it was as if my entire future was suddenly altered,” he said.\nHe had planned to study medicine and become a surgeon, but the injury made that impossible.\n“I regret it because I would never know if I would have been a good doctor,” he said.\nSalonga said his father helped him cope after the accident by telling him in hospital: “You still have your brain.”\nHe admitted that even after the incident he continued playing with firecrackers “for a while”, before realising, he said, “the foolishness in it”.\nHis advice now is blunt. “It’s not worth it.”\nSalonga said he would still watch “safe firecracker explosions”, but added: “Now we don’t do it any more. My granddaughter’s afraid of loud noises.”\n