NORTHERN Mindanao was peaceful during the celebration of the New Year, the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Northern Mindanao reported Friday.
“The crime situation in Region 10 is generally peaceful as the year ended without significant incident that transpired,” Superintendent Gervacio Balmaceda Jr., PNP-Northern Mindanao information officer, said in a statement.
Balmaceda said all unit commanders in the region were ordered to properly supervise police officers under their command in the different police operations and activities.
“The crime incidents in this period reduced compared to last year including the [firecracker-related] incidents as the police maximized their effort in catching illegal firecrackers and pyrotechnics,” the statement added.
PNP-Northern Mindanao added that there was no report of illegal discharge of firearms and related incidents in its area of responsibility.
Balmaceda said all the police officers were ordered to seal the muzzle of their issued firearms last December 22.
On Friday, all the taped firearms were unsealed simultaneously in all police offices and precincts in the region.
So far, he added, the PNP has noted no violation of the said order. If there was an incident of indiscriminate firing of weapons from law enforcers and civilians, it would have been reported right away.
“We have been monitoring any incident of illegal discharge, even those not by police officers,” Balmaceda told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro in a phone interview.
He added the PNP still has to consolidate the reports from all police units in Northern Mindanao.
Even after the Yuletide season and New Year’s Day celebration, Balmaceda said the full alert status is still being observed by the PNP. This means no vacation or break for police officers yet, he said.
“The full alert status has not been downgraded yet,” he said, adding they will only change it once the PNP national headquarters issues a new directive.
In a text message, Senior Superintendent Faro Antonio Olaguera, head of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo), is hoping the full alert status will be lowered by January 10.
Low firecracker incidents
Meanwhile, a television report quoted the Department of Health (DOH)-Northern Mindanao as saying the number of victims of firecracker incidents has gone down for this year.
The report said the DOH reported 44 firecracker injuries for 2015, while last year it was 132.
In Manila, the DOH central office reported that the 351 fireworks-related injuries (FWRI) recorded since December 21 until 6 a.m. January 1 were lower compared to the same period in 2013 and the five-year average from 2009 to 2013.
“There is a reduction of 39 percent in comparison to last year. It is also 31 percent lower than the previous five year annual average of 511 injuries per year for that period,” DOH Acting Secretary Janette Loreto-Garin said in a press briefing at the East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC) in Quezon City on Thursday.
According to Garin, there were 578 cases of FWRI recorded during the same period in 2013.
Of the 351 FWRI, she said 346 or 98.5 percent were due to fireworks explosion, two or 0.6 percent from firework ingestion and three or 0.9 percent from stray bullet.
Drop of stray bullet cases
Garin also reported that there was a drop on stray bullets cases from 11 recorded last year to just only three cases now.
“The good news is that stray bullets cases dropped to 73 percent and we thank Philippine National Police and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) for massive campaign,” she added.
Garin added that the count on the total number of injuries is not yet final and may still change until January 5 as other reports from the 50 sentinel hospitals (both public and private hospitals were most number of FWRI patients usually seek treatment) are still collected and verified. “Final report will be released by January 6.”
As the health campaigns shifts to prevention of tetanus among the injured, Garin reminded those injured to get their anti-tetanus shots in hospitals right away.
Listened, acted on awareness campaign vs use of firecrackers
Garin said the drop can be attributed to the fact that more people are now listening to the call of their conscience against using firecrackers and the massive anti-firecrackers campaign of the government in collaboration with the media and local government units (LGUs).
She said the DOH is encouraged with seeing more Filipinos heeding the call of its campaign against firecrackers. "Mas maraming Pilipino ang nakonsensya ngayon, at sila ay nagdesisyon pabor sa kanilang kaligtasan."
Garin added the bad news is that 14 of those injured from firecrackers were with amputations or 75 percent increase compared to eight last year.
The health acting chief said this can be attributed to the two major factors: one factor is the shift of age of users from adults to children.
"Since the hands of children are too small in handling firecracker, they are prone to damage in explosion," she said.
Another factor, she added, is the widespread selling of affordable firecrackers (piccolo) wherein some children even share them that led to increased number of hands amputated.
In the case of eye injuries due to firecrackers, Garin said that from 72 last year; it went down to 59 or 18 percent lower.
“This can be attributed with the gaining of awareness wherein parents of the victims come forward to seek treatment, leading to proper cleansing of the affected eye area, examination to prevent further complications,” she added.
From the total number of fireworks injuries, “piccolo” is still the undisputed the “topnotch” cause of injuries with 166 or 49 percent, followed by Kwitis with 35 cases or 10 percent, Luces 21 or 6 percent and Five Star with 12 or 3 percent.
Garin also said most of the reported injuries came from the National Capital Region with 168 or 48 percent, Manila with 31 percent, Pasig 14 percent, Quezon City 13 percent, Navotas 7 percent and Caloocan also 7 percent.
A total FWRI, 91 were children less than 10 years old or 26 percent.
The DOH acting chief also said of the total FWRI this year, 234 got injured because they handled the firecrackers themselves while 112 were bystanders or "nahagisan lang." (With a report from PNA)