No more boom: Bamboo cannons join Cagayan de Oro’s list of banned items

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – Boga, an improvised noise-making device that was once a symbol of festive ingenuity and widely seen as a safer alternative to firecrackers, is now outlawed in Cagayan de Oro City.

Locally known as boga, or lantaka in Luzon, these makeshift devices once had a reputation for being harmless fun. That changed when local authorities, citing their exclusion from Republic Act No. 7183 – the 1992 Firecrackers Law – tightened the city’s regulations and included it.

Like mini-cannons, boga users typically ignite a cloth soaked in kalburo (calcium carbide) or kerosene at one end of a bamboo pole or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe to create a deafening boom and thick black smoke. PVC cannons, especially in urban areas, produce even louder explosions.

This period marks a shift in Cagayan de Oro’s approach to holiday safety. For the first time in decades, the city government has included bamboo cannons – and its modern PVC pipe version – on its list of banned items in its campaign to ensure a casualty-free celebration during the holiday revelries. The crackdown extends to illegal firecrackers and substandard pyrotechnic devices.

Days before Christmas Eve, authorities in Gusa, a barangay about five kilometers east of the city proper, confiscated several bamboo poles and PVC pipes that were being improvised as bangers.

“We will not allow the use of ‘boga’ and put the health and lives of our residents at risk,” Marlon Tabac, Gusa barangay chairperson, said on Thursday, December 26. 

Tabac, who is also vice chairperson of the Liga ng mga Barangay in Cagayan de Oro, said they have recorded no injuries due to fireworks or other explosive devices.

Tumpagon barangay chairman Cecilio Dagasan said a team was created in his village to crack down on firecrackers and “boga” based on Cagayan de Oro Mayor Rolando Uy’s executive order.

Uy’s order reconstituted the city’s Task Group on Firecrackers and Pyrotechnic Devices (TG-FPD) to spearhead the crackdown.

The Department of Health (DOH) has warned against boga due to risks such as burns, eye injuries, and inhalation of toxic smoke. A six-year-old boy in Talisay City, Cebu, died in 2009 from lung damage caused by inhaling smoke from nearby boga explosions.

“It cannot be implemented because there is no law regulating or banning it,” DOH-Northern Mindanao Assistant Regional Director Ellenietta Gamolo told Rappler.

The DILG has not explicitly included boga in its directives to local governments and law enforcement.

Uy’s order, however, designated Paseo del Rio – a roundabout in downtown Cagayan de Oro – as the area where government-approved firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices can be displayed and sold in Cagayan de Oro until December 31.

A year ago, or from December 21, 2023, to January 6, the DOH recorded 37 fireworks-related injuries throughout the Northern Mindanao region, which was a 370% increase from 10 cases during the same period the previous year. It was the highest in nine years, which health authorities were trying to prevent from happening again.

Of these cases, 29%, or 11, were attributed to boga, with most incidents reported in Bukidnon. The province also logged 14 injuries from illegal firecrackers.

Cagayan de Oro ranked second with seven cases, more than double the three cases recorded in the 2022-2023 period.

Lieutenant Colonel Evan Viñas, spokesperson for the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (COCPO), said no fireworks-related injuries or stray bullet incidents were reported during the Christmas celebration. – Rappler.com