Cebuano woman struck by stray bullet on New Year’s Eve

CEBU CITY—Joname Diaz, 23, was standing outside a store on C. Padilla Street in Cebu City past 11 p.m. on New Year’s Eve to buy load for her cellular phone so she could send greetings to her friends and relatives.

Then she fell on the ground.

Diaz was hit by a stray bullet in her buttock and was brought to the Cebu City Medical Center at 11:45 pm, or just around 15 minutes before the actual new year celebration.

Her relatives had no idea who fired the shot because at that time, some of the residents of Duljo-Fatima, a densely-populated village in Cebu City, were lighting their firecrackers.

Diaz was one of the victims of stray bullet in Central Visayas recorded by the the Department of Health regional office (DOH-7) from Dec. 21, 2015 to Jan. 1.

Two of the victims were from Barangays Capitol Site and Talamban, in Cebu City and another in Barangay Sta Cruz, Baclayon town, Bohol, said Rennan Cimafranca, DOH-7 head of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU).

Cimafranca said 58 persons were also brought to the different hospitals for firecracker-related injuries – an increase of four cases compared to the last year’s 54.

A one-year-old baby from Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental died last year due to firecracker injuries, said Cimafranca. This year, there was no reported fatality, he added.

Of the number, 25 were from Cebu City, 20 from Cebu province, 11 from Negros Oriental and two from Bohol. No one was reported hurt from Siquijor.

The youngest victim was a one-month-old baby and the oldest was 76 years old.

Cimafranca said only nine of the firecracker-related injuries were confined at the different hospitals while the rest went home after receiving treatment.

Sixty-percent of the victims were accidentally hit by firecrackers lighted by other persons while 40 percent of them were the ones who lighted the firecrackers. Nine of them were drunk during the incident.

The firecrackers used include Kwitis, Thunder, Whistle Bomb, Boga, Fountain, Collected Powders, Piccolo, Judas Belt, and Sparkler.

Dionisio Ardiente, in his 40s, was drinking with his friends when he lighted a whistle bomb in Lower Busay, Cebu City about 10 p.m. on December 31.

But the burning portion of the firecracker landed on the whistle bomb still being held by Ardiente, triggering an explosion.

One of his fingers in the left hand was severely affected.

Fourteen of the victims suffered injuries in the eye. One of the victims had to be amputated.