Stephanie Nicole Ella, the girl hit by a stray bullet during the New Year revelry, died on Wednesday, the second casualty of a rowdy celebration that included the indiscriminate firing of guns.

The 7-year-old girl passed away at about 2:26 p.m., according to authorities. She has been in a coma at the East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City since she was felled by a bullet while watching the fireworks display in front of her home in Caloocan City.

The first gun casualty was Ranjelo Nemor, 4, who was pronounced dead by doctors minutes after being shot by a teenager who welcomed the new year by firing his homemade gun in Mandaluyong City. The teenager was arrested by policemen also on Wednesday.

Director Leonardo Espina, chief of the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO), identified the arrested suspect as Emmanuel Janabon.

Janabon, according to Espina, was nabbed by operatives of the Mandaluyong City police following an investigation of Nemor’s death.

Nemor was playing outside his house at the Welfareville Compound, Barangay Addition Hills in Mandaluyong City when he was hit at the back by a stray bullet fired from a sumpak (homemade gun).

A report from the Department of Health said that 20 other persons were hit by stray bullets during the New Year revelry.

The number of cases of firecracker-related injuries, meanwhile, increased to 675.

Ban firecrackers
Since many of those injured by firecrackers were young people, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said that the youth should be banned from buying firecrackers.

Ona said he will discuss this proposition in a stakeholders’ meeting with the Philippine National
Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire Protection and firecracker manufactures.

The secretary pointed out that the sale of cheap firecrackers should be controlled or the youth should be banned from buying such products. He noted reports that piccolo, which costs only P15 a box, caused the most number of injuries during the New Year celebration.

The department has been discouraging Filipinos from using firecrackers to welcome the New Year, citing its harmful effects on health and the environment.

Explosive device
The PNP, for its part, said it intends to classify several types of illegal and banned powerful firecrackers as a type of improvised explosive device (IED).

PNP spokesman, Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr., said that classifying powerful firecrackers like Goodbye Philippines and Bin Laden as IED would give stiffer penalties to sellers or manufacturers.

He said that they have observed that some of the design and even effects of these firecrackers and their variants are similar to the effects of IED that commonly used by terrorists and rebels.

 “They are too powerful. Maybe we can classify them as a bomb and [their sale and manufacture] will have corresponding heavier penalties,” Cerbo said.

“We can call them IED. It’s time to review existing regulations on firecrackers,” he added.

The PNP spokesman said that since December 16, the police have conducted an intensified crackdown against the sale, distribution and manufacture of illegal and banned firecrackers nationwide.

During the period, 229 persons were arrested, 179 of them in Metro Manila.

The PNP spokesman added that 177 stalls, 54 of them in Metro Manila, were also closed for selling and distributing illegal or banned firecrackers.