President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s decision to raise a P2-million bounty for information leading to the arrest of the killer of 7-year-old stray bullet victim Stephanie Nicole Ella would help in the speedy arrest of the gunman, but anticrime advocates reminded

the president that there are other stray bullet victims who also seek justice.

Dante Jimenez, founding chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), said that the death of Ella is very saddening and should serve as a wake-up call to authorities and lawmakers to address the loose firearm problem, but he noted that other stray bullet victims also need equal attention.

According to the report of the Philippine National Police, 40 people including Ella had been hit by stray bullets during the New Year’s revelry.

One of them was Francis Flores, a 37-year-old owner of a small eatery. He was watching fireworks in Pasig City when a stray bullet hit him. He is out of danger, but police have yet to identify and arrest the gunman.

Jimenez said that although other stray bullet victims survive, it doesn’t mean that those responsible for their injuries are free of any charges and the government should also give their respective cases attention.

“Rewards should also be offered for the arrest of other gun owners responsible for the injury of other stray bullet victims, they too deserve justice,” Jimenez said.

Besides the stray bullet victims, there are 2,000 victims of various crimes in 2012, who are still seeking justice.

According to the anticrime group, 1,400 individuals were either gunned down, mauled to death, hacked, stabbed, bombed, strangled, or massacred and 500 were wounded by their attackers last year. But authorities only identified 900 suspects who are still mostly at large.

The group also noted that there are 35 massacre cases of an average of three incidents a month that were reported in 2012.

“It was a gruesome year of wholesale killings; it was the worst scenario of crime that the VACC noted through the years it was monitoring crime cases,” the group stated on its yearend report.