President
Aquino led the distribution of 135 newly procured fire trucks and 144 new
police patrol jeeps as part of the administration's continuing commitment to
modernize and enhance the capability of the Philippine National Police, the
Bureau of Fire Protection and the other public safety services under the
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Aquino was
accompanied by Interior and Local Government Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento in a
simple turn over ceremony at the Quezon City Circle in Quezon City on Monday
(April 4).
The first
as well as the second batch of these fire trucks were already distributed last
year, while the third batch with a total of 155 units fire engines were turned
over to its recipients last February 19 of this year.
This is
the first and the biggest fire truck procurement in the history of the BFP with
a total of 469 units, 244 of which are1000 gallons capacity while 225 are 500
gallons capacity that amounted to 2.5 Billions of pesos.
“These new
additional fire trucks will aid in the filling up of shortages on its assets
and will intensify fire suppression capability of the BFP. It will not only
boost the capability of our fire fighters, it will also help them to be more
effective and efficient in performing their mandated task, similarly these new
equipment will also lift the morale of our fire-fighters because the
dilapidated fire trucks will be replaced by the new ones,” President Aquino
said as he emphasized the importance of the acquisition of these additional
fire engines.
With the
standard ratio of 1:28,000 or one fire truck for every twenty eight thousand
population, the BFP still needs at least one thousand fire trucks to achieve
the lacking requirement considering that at present there are 2,215 fire trucks
being utilized by the BFP all over the Philippines catering almost 100 million
population.
As the
Fire Prevention month culminates today, the BFP have recorded at least 1,909
fire incidents nationwide with 169.3 million worth of damages for the month of
March 2016.
It has a
significant drop compared to last year’s 2,869 fire incidents with a total of
419.2 million worth of damages.
The 144
new patrol jeeps on the other hand is part of the 186 units of 4x2 Mahindra
Enforcer patrol jeeps which was recently procured as repeat order from the
savings generated from the procurement 1,470 patrol jeeps sourced out from the
Capability Enhancement Program (CEP) fund CYs 2011-2013.
On top of
the 144 units that were distributed by President Aquino, 27 units were already
turned over to the municipal, city and regional PNP units which were not
covered in the initial procurement of 1,470 units Patrol Jeeps.
The
remaining patrol jeeps were initially assigned to the PNP logistics support
service.
The
procurement of additional mobility assets for police stations and different PNP
units will improve police visibility and respond to any eventuality especially
in crime prone areas. The patrol jeeps can also be used during relief and
rescue operations, Internal Security Operation (ISO) and other related activities.
Likewise,
it is envisioned that all municipal and city police stations/offices in the PNP
shall have at least one (1) vehicle for their police operations. This is now
realized with the procurement of 1,470 units and the herein 144 additional
units of patrol jeeps. (DILG)
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