Fire bureau cleansing must start from the top

(Conclusion)

From the looks of it, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) needs some serious cleansing. But who will initiate the purge?

The bureau's personnel have complained against their director, police Col. Raymundo Padua, who, according to them, is not capable of being the country's top fireman.

"He was plucked from the police force, had no experience in fire-fighting whatsoever and lacks ma-nagement ability and leadership," one fireman said.

The BFP personnel are grumbling specifically about Padua's designation not only as acting director or officer-in-charge of the bureau, but also as assistant secretary for public safety under the Department of the Interior and Local Government. Former Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno was allegedly responsible for Padua's twin posts.

To show their disapproval for Padua's appointment, officials of the United Fire Fighters of the Philippines (UFFP) issued a manifesto last September asking Puno to remove Padua from the DILG, saying an assistant secretary for public safety does not exist in the department's plantilla or official list of positions.

The group also told Puno that under the law, those appointed as officers-in-charge are allowed only to serve for one year. Padua's term, the group noted, expired last July.

The UFFP's move coincided with the Commission on Appointments' (CA) decision to confirm Puno for his post. During one of its hearings, the CA asked Puno about the firemen's concerns and the DILG chief made a verbal pledge to look into the problem.

Puno never did. Until his resignation early this year he never mentioned anything about Padua again and the latter continues to head the BFP up to this day.

With his two positions, Padua reportedly has more power than he can handle.

As assistant secretary, he enjoys the authority of signing for transactions worth up to P1.5 million. As officer-in-charge of the BFP, on the other hand, he can sign any deal worth P1 million and lower.

Alvin Estrada, spokesman for the UFFP, described this as highly irregular.

"Padua is holding two positions. He is approving the checks prepared and endorsed also by him," he said.

Estrada added that Padua's appointment to two positions was clearly illegal. The 1987 Administrative Code, he pointed out, provides that only the President is allowed to name people to undersecretary and assistant secretary positions.

"These positions cannot be filled by Cabinet members or their undersecretaries," he said.

Another legal basis that renders Padua's appointment questionable is the resolution issued by the Civil Service Commission in 1995 which required that officers-in-charge of any agency must come from the ranks.

The UFFP, in a petition to new Interior Secretary Alfredo Lim, condemned Padua's appointment as an "unwelcome intrusion of a non-professional fireman (into the) BFP." The group described Padua as "lacking in qualifications" and warned that his appointment would only fuel internal conflict in the bureau.

Sought for comment, Padua said he was ready to step down if told so by his superiors. "I am not clinging to my position," he stressed.

Padua challenged his critics to prove before the appropriate court that his appointment was illegal. He said he has expected to be criticized since he assumed responsibility over the BFP. "I can't please everybody," he said.

Meanwhile, the controversy threatening to raze the BFP is not the only thing that is giving the country's firemen headaches. The main problems they have to contend with right now remain to be the rising incidence of fires and the increasing difficulty in getting their job done.

Fire fighting in the country, it seems, gets harder as towns and cities become more industrialized. For one, fire incidence has increased by an average of 8.4 percent annually the past 10 years, causing an average of P3.9 billion damage each year.

Based on statistics, a fire strikes about every one hour and 20 minutes in the country, but the BFP is only able to respond to 75 percent of them.

Firefighters said this is due to the lack of firetrucks and absence of communication equipment.

At present, the BFP only has 1,064 operational firetrucks, and it still needs to put up fire stations in many areas of the country. Ideally, there has to be a fire station for every area with a population of 28,000, and by this equation, the bureau needs to construct at least 1,700 more fire stations.

Worse, however, is the firemen's lack of communication devices.

BFP officials have admitted that not all of their stations have telephone lines, much less fire alarms and two-way radios.

One official who spoke on condition of anonymity said some stations have resorted to illegal means just to maintain a connection.

"We have fire stations whose telephone lines were merely tapped or illegally connected," the official said. "The bureau can no longer afford to pay for telephone service. And the phone company tolerates this most of the time because they understand the situation."

Another sad fact the country's firemen face everyday is their low pay and delayed allowances.

The UFFP recently lashed out at the BFP for not releasing their long delayed allowances for last year, totaling P20,000 for each fireman. These include P10,800 subsistence allowance, P2,000 productivity pay and at least P7,200 medical allowance.

"We have been anticipating the release of these allowances last November or December but so far not a single centavo has been given to us," said Jose Estrada Jr., UFFP president.

The group has inquired with the bureau for the allowances but officials told them pointblank that they were still awaiting the release of the needed funds.

Estrada bewails that these allowances are very important to firemen since most of them receive a measly P4,800 a month basic salary. In the past, he said, firemen "sell" these allowances to moneyed men within the bureau for a lesser amount.

"Now who would advance money for these allowances when it is not even sure if they are indeed coming?" he asked.

The country's firemen reportedly have an average life-span of only 49 years. This is due to the risks they regularly encounter, and their lack of medical or hospital benefits.

And it seems the only thing these men can have as consolation at the end of the month is an extra P135 in their pay. "That's our hazard pay," one fireman quipped.

Yet despite all this, many in the firefighting business remain undaunted. And these firemen who try to perform their duties unmindful of the risks to life and limb may be the BFP's saving grace.

One such fireman is Senior Fire Officer 1 Severino de Ungria.

Considered as one of the most decorated firemen in the country today, De Ungria has risked his life several times while trying to save fire victims through the 18 years he has worked in the bureau.

In 1995, he almost died while helping five women who were trapped in a burning apartelle in Manila.

"I couldn't see a thing. The place was filled with smoke and I didn't have a breathing apparatus. The smoke was beginning to get into my lungs and I thought that was it," he recalled. "I just asked God to let me save the women first before He takes me."

Fire Officer 3 Jesus Talusan shares De Ungria's dedication. A son of a fireman who died from lung and heart problems at age 48, Talusan knows the job is never easy.

"My father didn't want me to be a fireman but I insisted," he said. "I have this picture of a fireman in my mind as an urban knight armed with a water hose who has to slay a fire-breathing monster. I feel we are still those knights." -- With a report from Nestor Etolle