Police: Stray bullets injure two people in Abra New Year revelry

Two people were reportedly wounded in Abra after being hit by a stray bullet during the New Year revelry, an official of the Police Regional Office (PRO) Cordillera said Sunday.

PRO Cordillera Deputy Regional Director for Operations Police Colonel Ronald Gayo said the police have yet to identify the suspect for the incident, but were tasked by Police Brigadier General Mafelino Bazar to provide information on the matter within the next 72 hours.

Gayo, however, stressed that aside from this, the New Year celebration in the region has been “generally peaceful” so far.

“[Regarding] sa monitoring natin sa buong magdamag, so far within the region, it’s generally peaceful. ‘Yun nga lang, it’s very unfortunate na meron tayong recorded na dalawang kaso…o dalawang biktima ng stray bullet,” he said in a press conference spearheaded by the Department of Health (DOH).

(Regarding our monitoring efforts in the region throughout the night, it's generally peaceful so far. It's just that, it's very unfortunate that we have recorded two cases or two victims of stray bullet.)

“Direktiba naman po ng ating Regional Director na si Police Brigadier General Bazar na within 72 hours, ay mabigyan… ma-identify kung sino man itong nagpaputok na nagdulot ng pinsala sa dalawang tao. ‘Yan ang aming tutukan, babantayan para mabigyan na kaagad ng solusyon itong insidenteng ito,” he added.

(The directive of our Regional Director, Police Brigadier General Bazar, is that within 72 hours, we identify whoever fired the shot that caused injuries to two people. That is our focus so that this incident will be resolved immediately.)

For DOH’s part, they said they are still validating the data and will give further information in the coming hours.

The agency recorded 85 new cases of fireworks-related injuries during the celebration of the New Year. This brought the caseload from December 21, 2022 to January 1, 2023 to 137.

Gayo said that in Baguio City, police have apprehended several individuals due to use of illegal fireworks.

“Ang ini-implement nila actually dito is local ordinance. So issue-han sila ng ticket and administrative fine lang naman ‘yun. May mga confiscation din naman silang ginawa na nagresulta ng pag-issue ng mga citation tickets,” he said.

(What they are actually implementing here is local ordinance. They only issue tickets and ask for an administrative fine. They also made confiscations that resulted in the issuance of citation tickets.) —LBG, GMA Integrated News