MANILA – The Bureau of Fire Protection has insufficient firefighters and equipment and facilities, including fire trucks, fighting gear and fire stations, according to the Commission on Audit.
With an insufficient number of standard personal protective equipment, or PPE, the Fire bureau “failed to attain its vision of a modern fire service fully capable of ensuring a fire-safe nation,” the commission noted in an annual audit report.
“The non-procurement by the BFP of firefighting equipment for years, its persistence in transferring funds to Procurement Service – Department of Budget and Management and to Philippine International Trading Corp. for the purpose of procuring for them the needed equipment and relying heavily on said agency’s delivery of the requested equipment, contributed to this shortage of fire trucks and firefighting gears,” the COA said.
Citing standards set by the BFP Modernization Program, the COA said the bureau “has [an] insufficient number of firefighters … short of 26,250 firemen.”
“By HLURB (Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board) standard,” the COA said, the BFP is short “of 27,460 firemen.”
The BFP was also mandated to set up at least one fire station in each of the 145 cities and 1,489 municipalities in the country.
“Considering that the funds for the fire stations were transferred to the PITC and considering that no timeline was provided in the fund transfer, there was no assurance that the construction will be finished this year or at least in the next few years,” said the COA.
Moreover the BFP should have at least 3,606 serviceable fire trucks but, as of December 2017, its total serviceable fire trucks was only 54 percent of the required, the commission said.
As for firefighting gears the BFP has only 12,718 fire helmets, 7,133 fire coats, 6,760 fire trousers, 12,357 pairs of gloves, 11,456 pairs of boots, and 1,938 self-contained breathing apparatus, the COA noted.
The COA suggested that the BFP act on its insufficiencies as well as the poor condition of its fire trucks and gears./PN
