During the hearing on the draft budget of 251,184 million pesos of the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for 2023, an allocation of 27,770 million pesos for the BFP was strongly analyzed.
Director Louie Puracan, head of the FPB, told the Senate Finance Committee chaired by Senator Sonny Angara that they had permission from the Department of Budget and Administration (DBM) to use forty-five million pesos of their savings of 94 million pesos to acquire 2,282 incendiary guns. in 146 locations and 17 regional offices.
Puracan said the plan is in line with the BFP modernization law signed in 2021 through then-President Rodrigo Duterte.
It included a provision that allowed firefighters to bring firearms to deal with possible criminal activities while responding to fires.
However, Puracan the DBM rejected BFP’s request to make the acquisition last year due to lack of funds.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III recalled that in the deliberations of Congress before the law was approved, the provision arming FPB personnel “came out of nowhere. “
At Friday’s budget hearing, Pimentel asked how much a chimney truck costs, to which Puracán replied about 15 million pesos.
“So, the political consultation is, 3 more fire trucks or more than 2,000 guns?I think for the FPB it’s a no-brainer because you know what you’re supposed to do,” Pimentel said, disapproving of the budget allocation proposal. the acquisition of firearms.
“I’m saddened by the idea of savings on fire trucks to buy firearms,” he said.
Senator Nancy Binay asked how the FPB can simply make “savings” when the government suffers from a severe lack of funds.
Puracan claimed that a bid for a stack of chimney trucks was unsuccessful because bid amounts were “below” approved budget limits.
Binay, the BFP, can turn to the Philippine National Police (PNP) to deal with firefighting crimes.
Senator Joseph Victor Army noted that there are 203 municipalities without their own chimney stations and that they will have to borrow chimney trucks from their neighbors on the occasion of a chimney.
The Army asked why the BFP prioritizes towns and municipalities in its distribution of truck bombs and neglects the sets of deficient local governments when “the towns and municipalities from first to second can take care of themselves and equip themselves. “
As the discussion progressed, the senator speculated that the BFP came under pressure from some lawmakers to prioritize their districts and pleaded with Puracan to reject such requests to prioritize deficient municipalities in terms of fire truck distribution.
Puracán explained that the FPB now follows an express formula “8-2” in which for every 10 tankers, 8 would go to refloating and two to municipalities.
He said the BFP has about 400 chimney trucks for people 40 and older.
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