An 11-year-old girl who was hit by a stray bullet died near midnight of Monday when suspected New People’s Army rebels strafed a military detachment in Toboso, Negros Occidental, to usher in their 42nd founding anniversary yesterday, an Army official said.

Maj. Gen. Vicente Porto, Army’s 3rd Infantry Division commander, said Arnie Amion, 11, was sleeping at her house in Sitio Pasto Crossing, Brgy. Bug-ang, Toboso, when communist rebels opened fire at the detachment.

A bullet hit her in the face, causing her death shortly before midnight.

The United Drivers Operators Center will push through with their protest rally against the disparity in oil prices between Manila and Bacolod on Thursday in front of the Fountain of Justice in Bacolod City.

This was confirmed yesterday by Jessie Ortega and Romell Santillan, UNDOC secretary general and chairman, respectively, who said there will be no transport strike in Bacolod, unlike in Mindanao.

They said that oil prices have increased 10 times since January this year.

The Department of Health is targeting 1.5 million children in Western Visayas, more than one-third of whom are in Negros Occidental, for a massive door-to-door measles-rubella immunization campaign from April 4 to May 4,  Dr. Renilyn Reyes, DOH 6 regional medical coordinator, said yesterday.

Reyes said that,  of the 1.5 million children aged 9 months old to 7 years and  11 months old, 500,000 are from Negros Occidental and 103,000 from Bacolod City.

The $17 million immunization campaign hopes to cover 17 million children nationwide, she said at a press conference on the campaign  at O’Hotel in Bacolod City.