At 8 years old, Sam Monteron dreamed of buying a large two-story house for his family so that he and his three younger siblings would each have a room.
He also wanted to be a seafarer like his uncles.
The boy, who was killed by the accidental explosion of fireworks called Bombshell during a fiesta, was laid to rest yesterday in a public cemetery in Cordova on Mactan Island.
“Karon sakit jud hunahunaon nga wa na among kamaguwangan, hinayhinay nalang namo nga dawaton, naa naman na (It really hurts to know that our eldest is gone but we have to accept this),” said his mother, Michelle.
Sam was buried with a toy gun which his parents had bought a few hours before he died.
It was still tucked at the back of his waist when he went to watch the fireworks display in barangay San Miguel on Monday night.
“In the hospital, we realized he still had the toy gun. He really loved the toy,” Michelle said in Cebuano.
AN ANGEL
The mother said Sam was like an “angel” who saved others in his tragic death because the wayward rocket could have exploded in a multicab, which would have caused a bigger blast since the vehicle was loaded with gasoline.
Sam was standing in front of the vehicle parked 5 to 10 meters from the fireworks staging area in a small open space in barangay San Miguel.
The pyrotechnic device should have launched upward and burst in the sky.
Instead, one rocket flew horizontally toward Sam and exploded on his stomach. The boy was still conscious when he was rushed to the hospital, where he later died.
UNEVEN LOT
Bloodstains were still visible yesterday in the dirt of a concret slab where Sam had been standing.
A wooden cross, a lighted candle and flowers marked the spot.
The fireworks that killed him was supposed to be a highlight of the barangay’s fiesta celebration.
The Bombshell, a cluster of tubes of rockets, was launched from a grassy lot surrounded by houses and a chapel.
The ground’s surface was uneven.
Michelle said the two men who staged the fireworks display, Joseph Berdin and Jason Tuquib, admitted that it was a mistake to launch the pyrotechnic device from an uneven area.
“Unya wala nila nabangilan ug bato aron dili matumba. Aksidente jud to (They did not use rocks to brace the devices. It was an accident),” said the mother.
The two men were released from police detention on Wednesday, after the boy’s parents signed an affidavit of desistance from filing charges against them.
ASSISTANCE
In an agreement signed with Sam’s parents on Sept. 30, fireworks manufacturer Juliet Wahing pledged to foot the burial expenses and pay P50,000 cash as assistance.
Michelle and her husband Bryaner received P10,000 up front. They will get the balance of P40,000 on Oct. 12.
Wahing did not attend the boy’s vigil wak but sent relatives to relay her condolences.
The local manufacturer, who supplies the fireworks every year to the chapel committee for the fiesta,, is under investigation for operating with an expired license to manufacture fireworks.
She had a mayor’s permit but failed to secure a permit from the Cordova police to stage the fireworks display last Monday.
SPO4 Glen Facturan of the Firearms and Explosives Unit of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 said an investigator interviewed Wahing yesterday.
Police is also looking into the role of the two men who staged the fireworks display and the chapel committee of barangay San Miguel which organized the event.