Facebook post of indiscriminate firing goes viral

By: 10 years ago

Screengrabs from a video made public on Facebook show three men firing guns during the New Year’s Day revelry.

MANILA, Philippines—Netizens were outraged over a Facebook post showing a group of men firing bullets during the New Year’s Day revelry.

A certain Philip Andrew Funtanilla posted an album showing a group of men indiscriminately firing stacks of bullets using rifles and hand guns. As of press time, the album was shared 94 times and had at least 24 likes.

“New years eve..happy new year…Welcome 2015..” Funtanilla wrote in his post dated January 1, 2:54 a.m.

Funtanilla even posted a video of the firing, also made public, on his Facebook account. It was viewed over 3,000 times and had 145 shares as of posting time.

The video showed six men firing their guns. Though it is not clear when the firing happened, the video was made public January 1.

According to the account of the Facebook user, Funtanilla lives in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur.

Some netizens who shared the video urged the Philippine National Police (PNP) to take appropriate action.

“To the PNP. Please get these irresponsible people,” wrote Jose Vener Ibarra .

“Let us start the year by tracking this irresponsible gun firing individuals,” added Jay Villalobos.

Some were amused by the Facebook user’s posting of the album and video publicly.

“(D)umb a**holes on (N)ew year’s eve!” wrote Patrick Nagal.

“Eto Nagpaputok nung New Year Pinost pa sa FB Page niya,” Nel Golpz said.

“Irresponsible gun owners,” added Ronnie Ricks.

According to the official tally of the PNP as of January 3, there were 59 incidents nationwide of stray bullets during the New Year revelry, while there were 42 injured. At least three incidents and two injured were recorded in Region 1.

In Abra, an 11-year-old girl died hours after she was hit by a stray bullet in the head. In Caloocan City, Maybelle Lou Juanitas, 13, was in a videoke session with cousins when she was also hit by a stray bullet. She was later saved after doctors extracted the bullet in her head.

The most famous case of indiscriminate firing involved 7-year-old Stephanie Nicole Ella, who died days after she was hit in the head by a stray bullet in Caloocan City. Her death just days after the New Year revelry in 2013 sparked debates on stricter gun control in the country.