First stray bullet victim recorded in Ormoc

MANILA, Philippines - Five days before New Year‘s Eve, authorities have recorded two cases of stray bullet injuries.

A 23-year-old married man in Ormoc City is the first case of stray bullet injury recorded by the Department of Health (DOH) this Yuletide season.

DOH Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag said the victim was hit by a stray bullet while sitting inside his house at 1:30 a.m. last Dec. 23. 

He was rushed to the Vicente Sotto Medical Center in Cebu City and is now awaiting surgery for fracture of the left femur or thigh bone.

The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), meanwhile, recorded another case of stray bullet injury in Marikina City.

NCRPO identified the victim as Roberto Mariano Jr. He was walking along Daang Bakal Street in Barangay Nangka, Marikina City when a stray bullet hit him on his right leg at 8:10 p.m. on Dec. 24. He was rushed to Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center for treatment.

Citing the DOH’s Iwas Paputok Injury Registry, Tayag said that 21 new cases of fireworks-related injuries were recorded on Christmas Eve.

This brought the number of cases to 42 since the registry started last Dec. 21. 

The ages of the victims ranged from five to 65 years old, with children below 10 years accounting for 10 cases.

All of the victims were males and none of the blast injuries required amputation. Nineteen cases were caused by piccolo firecrackers.

Tayag said one of the victims was a 65-year-old man from Iloilo City who was accidentally hit by unknown firecrackers in the face. The victim suffered a ruptured eyeball and is now confined at the Western Visayas Medical Center.

The DOH also registered the first fireworks ingestion case involving a one-year-old boy in Quezon City who swallowed a pop-up, a type of pyrotechnics popular among children. He was rushed to St. Luke’s Medical Center.

In Pangasinan, four children suffered blast injuries after playing with piccolo firecrackers. They were treated at the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital.

Tayag reiterated the DOH’s appeal to parents to keep their children safe and away from any fireworks as the New Year draws near.

“Watch over your children.  When they step out of your house, you should know what they do so you really have to guide them,” Tayag reminded parents.

The NCRPO has been placed on full alert since Monday after NCRPO chief Director Carmelo Valmoria ordered the maximum deployment of policemen to arrest persons firing handguns indiscriminately and those selling illegal firecrackers.

In Davao City, four adults and three minors were arrested yesterday for selling and using illegal firecrackers.

‘Over half of firecrackers in market smuggled’

Meanwhile, an insider at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) yesterday said that more than half of the volume of firecrackers in the market were smuggled.

The “assessment that only 50 percent of the firecrackers being sold in domestic market are smuggled is still a conservative figure,” the source said.

The source also said the peak of smuggling pyrotechnics was from July to August because by September and October, authorities beef up the monitoring of shipments coming in.

But since these goods are contraband and are often misdeclared, it is hard to tell the exact volume of shipments. What the source at the BOC is certain of is that the firecrackers illegally entered the country from “almost all ports nationwide.”

The source also said that with less than a week before New Year’s Eve, by this time most of the illegal products are already distributed to retail dealers. “They have already flooded the markets.”

What the BOC can do, the source said, is to secure a letter of authority (LOA) from Commissioner John Sevilla and serve these LOAs to the warehouses of importers.

“The importers would then be obligated to show the importation documents and that is the time that we would see if they were able to acquire these from legitimate sources.”

Many of the smuggled firecrackers come from China. Some of the smuggled firecrackers seized a few years ago bore “Made in Bulacan” markings even if they came from China.

Bulacan is known as the fireworks capital of the country. – With Evelyn Macairan, Eva Visperas, Non Alquitran, Celso Amo, Edith Regalado