EDITORIAL - BFP ‘slot-for-sale’

At the start of the year, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla had announced that around 10,000 fire safety inspectors of the Bureau of Fire Protection were facing investigation over an alleged kickback scheme involving overpriced fire safety equipment.

In March, the Department of the Interior and Local Government filed charges of bribery and malversation of public funds before the Office of the Ombudsman as well as an administrative complaint against then BFP chief Jesus Fernandez, for allegedly receiving a total of P14.752 million in three separate occasions in exchange for a rigged bidding for 132 Basic Life Support ambulances.

Remulla, whose department has jurisdiction over the BFP, said at the time that a probe was also underway into an alleged recruitment racket, wherein applicants are assured of jobs in the BFP in exchange for hundreds of thousands of pesos.

Last Friday, Remulla announced that over 200 officers and personnel of the BFP, including 18 regional directors, are under investigation for the “slot-for-sale” recruitment racket. He said the fees for a supposedly guaranteed employment slot in the BFP ranged from P100,000 to P800,000.

The probe scored a breakthrough following the arrest in San Fernando, Pampanga of a BFP employee who allegedly demanded P500,000 from a job applicant. Senior Fire Officer 1 Abigail Hermosora has been sacked from the BFP-National Capital Region office and slapped with a case for robbery-extortion. She allegedly used a dummy Facebook account under the name Spence Tee for luring victims in the job scam.

Remulla said Hermosora implicated a deputy regional director for administration of the BFP’s office in Calabarzon, who has also been sacked pending a probe for possible criminal indictment.

For this year, 23,344 people are competing for 2,504 available positions in the BFP. If they gain entry through a payoff rather than on merit, they can be expected to focus not on fire prevention but on recovering their “investment,” with a hefty interest.

With lives and property at stake in the BFP’s mandate, and with business confidence affected by corruption in securing fire clearances, this plague must be eradicated from the fire prevention service.