LOCALIZING FIRE PROTECTION

LOCALIZING FIRE PROTECTION I think that the Philippines might be one of the few countries in the world wherein the fire services are nationalized or federalized, instead of being localized. Why is that so? I recall that the reason why police services were nationalized was because the local politicians supposedly took advantage of their positions to use the policemen for their own private armies. That supposed problem does not affect firemen, to be sure. To be clear, I am not against the idea of retaining the PNP as the national police, because it could even co-exist with local police departments, in the same way that the old Philippine Constabulary (PC) co-existed with local police departments at that time. Having said that, I do not see the need for a nationalized Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) that will co-exist with local fire departments. It is ironic that while the government is talking about devolution of functions to the LGUs, no one seems to be talking about devolving fire services. It is time I think that the devolution of fire services should already start, because fire protection is really a local concern. It is disappointing to note that up to now, there are still some LGUs that do not have fire trucks, and even if they do, these are already too old to be useful. This problem could be avoided if the fire services were devolved. IKE SENERES/4-27-24