Fire chief suspended for 9 months

MANILA, Philippines - Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales yesterday ordered the suspension for nine months of Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) chief Rolando Bandilla Jr. and Chief Inspector Jhufel Brañanola for allegedly defrauding a fire victim of her insurance claims.

Morales also ordered the filing of graft charges against the two BFP officials before the Sandiganbayan and for Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo to immediately implement the suspension order.

In a 12-page decision, Morales found Bandilla, then acting chief of the BFP’s Intelligence Division, and Brañanola, chief of the Investigation Division, guilty of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service by issuing changing and conflicting arson reports.

The case stemmed from a complaint filed by Emma Lin, owner of a property at Cabyawan, Plaridel, Bulacan which was leased to three different companies and insured under two fire policies in the amount of P56 million and P20 million with Malayan Insurance Co.

The complainant claimed that Brañanola offered substantial amounts of money to three other fire officers “to create a doubt as to their earlier findings that the cause of the fire was accidental in nature.”

Bandilla allegedly “used his official position to whimsically and arbitrarily accede to the request of Malayan for the reevaluation of (the BFP’s) second report despite strong opposition on the part of the complainant.”

Records of the case showed that on Feb. 24, 2008 at around 3 a.m., a fire broke out within the complainant’s property, destroying the same including all other properties found therein.

In the first findings of the BFP, it was reported that the “fire incident was accidental in nature,” and that “the cause of the fire can attributed to electrical ignition primarily due to grounding.”

After receiving a Fire Clearance Certification, Lin filed her claim before Malayan but it was denied by the insurance firm, prompting her to elevate the matter before the Insurance Commission (IC).

On April 20, 2009, Bandilla allegedly issued an order for the composition of the Panel of Arson Investigators to re-investigate the fire incident.

On June 11, 2009, IC commissioner Eduardo Malinis recommended that the company reconsider its denial of the insurance claim of the complaint prompting Malayan to request for reconsideration from BFP of its second report.

It was then that a second panel led by Brañanola was created through a memorandum issued by Bandilla, which later recommended to the acting chief of the BFP to consider and declare the cause of the fire incident as “undetermined” due to the alleged contradicting findings of the BFP and the forensic report conducted by Malayan. The report was approved and signed by Bandilla.

An investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), however, showed that “by their (Bandilla and Brañanola) collective acts of defrauding the fire victims” the two “acted in conspiracy with each other in order to create doubt in the findings of the BFP.”

“This office finds sufficient substantial evidence against respondents for the administrative transgression of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, for they acted in conspiracy in the discharge of their respective official administrative functions, so as to create doubts as to its previous findings and with the end view of having complainant’s legitimate insurance claim denied, through manifest partiality and evident bad faith,” Carpio's order said.