COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Health authorities recorded only three firecracker-related incidents and a single stray bullet case during Christmas and New Year’s Day revelries in 36 towns of Maguindanao province.
Physician Hadji Tahir Sulaik, chief of the Integrated Provincial Health Office in Maguindanao, announced over Catholic station dxMS here Wednesday that all of the three firecracker accident victims were children, who were all promptly treated of their injuries.
A 29-year-old villager named Reynaldo Aquino in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in the first district of the province was hit and slightly wounded in the shoulder by a stray bullet apparently fired overhead from a distance by a reveler.
“We only had two firecracker related injuries in the year before,” said Sulaik.
Sulaik and his subordinates in the IPHO-Maguindanao have actively campaigned against the use of firecrackers and firing of guns during the Christmas and New Year’s Day revelries.
Sulaik said he and his subordinates will continue with their information campaign against the hazards of firecrackers even if the next yuletide season is still a year away.