Why DOH, PNP differ on stray bullet data

Philippine police show their pistols that were taped at the muzzle at Camp Crame in suburban Quezon City, north of Manila, Philippines on Monday, Dec. 22, 2014. Police were ordered to have their firearms tapped and signed by their leaders to prevent them from firing during the Christmas and New Year revelry. Firing of guns in the air during the celebrations has led to numerous deaths from stray bullets in the past. AP FILE PHOTO

The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday clarified why its data on New Year-related stray bullet cases were lower than figures presented by the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Health Secretary Janette Garin said the department considered as stray bullet case only those incidents where a victim was actually hurt by ammunition.

”’Yung figures kasi ng DOH, tinitingnan po namin kapag may bala na nakaperwisyo o tumama sa pasyente, ‘yun ang bilang namin. Pero kung yung bala pumasok sa bahay wala namang natamaan, hindi namin ‘yun binibilang pero binibilang ‘yun ng PNP,“ Garin told reporters after inspecting three hospitals in Metro Manila.

(From the figures of the DOH, we check if bullets caused damage [to properties] or if they caused injuries among patients. We account for those. Now if bullets [were able to] enter houses but no one got hurt, we don’t count those but the PNP does.)

”So the way PNP counts stray bullet incidents, they include those with no actual injury to patients. On the part of the DOH binibilang po namin ‘yung nagkaroon ng tao na talagang natamaan (we count those that caused injuries),“ she reiterated.

As of Thursday morning, the DOH recorded four stray bullet incidents, lower than PNP’s data which already exceeded 40 a day after Christmas.

The latest addition to DOH’s figures was a nine-year-old girl from Marikina who was hit by a bullet on her left chest while watching television inside their house.

But Garin said the DOH is set to remove the case of a girl in Norzagaray, Bulacan, from its stray bullet data after police report showed that she was accidentally shot by her own brother. TVJ

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