BFP-7 receives P600T gas budget for March

The Bureau of Fire Protection-7 has already received its gasoline allocation for the month of March, according to its director Eleuterio Iturriaga yesterday.

Iturriaga said that the allocation, amounting to P600,000, is for the entire region but he did not specify how much from the amount would go to a particular fire department or sub-station, particularly the Cebu City Fire Department.

There is now a new scheme in the distribution of gas for every fire truck, he said, and this requires every fire department to get a gas slip and requisition from the BFP-7 supply and control office before getting fuel from a designated gas station.

Iturriaga said the new scheme was carried out after the Cebu City Fire Department incurred debts amounting to P433,000 from a gas station in barangay Basak, from 2005 to the present.

The issue on gas allocation arose when city fire marshal Esmael Codilla told reporters, after the fire that hit barangay Capitol Site last week, that his department had accumulated debts on gas because it has yet to get its gasoline allowance.

Iturriaga later directed Codilla to submit documents that would justify the debts so that the national headquarters would be asked to give money for the settlement of such liability.

As of yesterday, it was not known yet if Codilla had already submitted the needed documents to the regional office or if Iturriaga had already informed the national office about the debt problem of the city department.

Iturriaga had mentioned only that he had already requested P3 million from their national office for the repair and change of engine of the defective fire trucks of BFP-7.

He was not sure if the amount was enough to cover the need of repairing these dilapidated fire trucks, most of which were close to 40 years old already and the last acquisitions were even about 20 years old.

He said the repair or conversion of a particular fire truck to a tanker would cost at least P400,000 including replacement of parts but he only set the amount of P3 million because he also considered the needs of other regional offices.

Itturiaga added that he also requested the national government to put up fire sub-stations in Mandaue City, considering its being a highly urbanized city, but was told that there is a lack of budget for such purpose.

The national headquarters instead suggested in return that BFP-7 should ask help from the local government where these sub-stations would be established. - Flor Z. Perolina/RAE