MANILA – A bill modernizing the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), including a provision arming firefighters, is now up for President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature after Congress ratified the measure’s revised bicameral conference committee report.
In their separate plenary sessions Wednesday, the Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the amended bicam report after the upper chamber last June scrapped it for containing a similar provision arming firefighters.
While the House swiftly ratified the report, a lengthy discussion ensued in the Senate.
In the end, the upper chamber approved the bicam report, with 14 senators voting in favor of the ratification; four voted “no” while two others abstained from voting.
The bicam report is a product of discussions between the Senate and House of Representatives, which aims to reconcile disagreeing provisions from their respective bill versions.
In revising the first bicam report earlier rejected by the Senate, the number of firemen allowed to carry guns as part of the bill’s proposed Security and Protection Unit (SPU) was specified “to limit the authority of the BFP on the issuance of [a] firearm,” Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, sponsor of the bicam report, told the Senate.
Under the amended bicam report, only 2,282 firefighters or 7.5 percent of the total number of BFP personnel will be armed.
Those under the SPU will be tasked to ensure the security and protection of their colleagues during fire suppression operations or investigations.
According to Dela Rosa, the Senate contingent to the bicam also further amended the said provision to “ensure that those who will be appointed in the SPU will be well trained to handle firearms.”
“As such, all SPU members shall be required to undergo neuropsychological examination before their appointment to the unit as well as periodic training,” he added.(©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2021)
