Fire ‘protection’

The long-standing practice in the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) of giving fire safety permits to business establishments only if they buy fire extinguishers from favored suppliers has been exposed.

This practice has been accepted by the public as an SOP (standard operating procedure) of the BFP and its predecessors, the pre-martial law fire departments of towns and cities.

Business establishments that buy good- or high-quality brands of fire extinguishers other than the ones approved by the BFP go through the wringer when they apply for a fire safety permit.

Most of the brands favored by the BFP are of low quality because the manufacturers set aside a portion of their earnings for fire officials.

Well, Interior Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. has put a stop to the corrupt practice, which was brought to light during the recent “Go Negosyo” summit.

Abalos said he would dismiss any BFP official who still engages in that kind of bribery.

Methinks erring firefighters should not only be kicked out of the service, but criminal cases should also be filed against them.

However, the interior secretary asked for the cooperation of the business sector by reporting BFP officials concerned.

Corrupt BFP officials collect huge amounts of money from the malpractice.

On the other hand, it’s public knowledge that BFP rank and file people – or those who go to the fire scene – force house owners to pay them for hosing down their burning or about-to-be burned houses.

My friend Abraham (his surname deliberately omitted) had to promise a firefighter he would pay him off if the latter would save his house from being engulfed in flames.

But the most reprehensible act that firemen do is looting abandoned houses or stores on fire. This one is very common. It’s like victors looting the property of the vanquished.

A Chinese friend caught a Manila fireman opening a drawer in his bedroom, apparently looking for valuables, years ago.

In the mid-1970s, Makati firemen returned all the valuables they looted from a burning house in Forbes Park, a millionaires’ village, after its owner complained to the feisty mayor Nemesio Yabut. I was a witness to the occurrence as I was then a reporter for a now defunct broadsheet that covered Makati City Hall.

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I seemed to have hit the mark when I said that the suspect or suspects in the murder of hard-hitting broadcast journalist Percival Mabasa, a.k.a. Percy Lapid, would come out of the woodwork because of the huge reward money for their capture.

Suspect Joel Salve Estorial surrendered because somebody who knew about the assassination plot would tell on him or kill him for the P6.5-million reward.

That he surrendered because his conscience bothered him is a premise advanced by Pollyannas. Hired killers don’t have consciences; the reward did the trick.

Estorial also probably feared that somebody at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) who supposedly hired him to kill Lapid might also hire other killers to silence him.

If Estorial is indeed one of the killers, then the police were handed a prize on a silver platter.

It’s now the job of the police to uncover the mastermind, whether he’s inside or outside prison.

The revelation that prisoners inside the NBP could commit crime via remote control is not new.

The prisoner that Estorial referred to is most probably a drug convict who runs his syndicate from inside the four walls of the national penitentiary.

A friend of mine told me that his daughter, a former drug user, confessed she bought meth from somebody inside the NBP.

Years ago, some inmates got out of the NBP to commit robbery or murder and then go back, like homing pigeons, to their cells.

A Supreme Court justice sought police protection after he got wind of reports that a drug convict at the NBP hired killers after he upheld the drug lord’s conviction.

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San Miguel Corp. president and CEO Ramon S. Ang has given P2 million each to the families of the five men who perished in rescue operations in Bulacan during Typhoon Karding last month.

“I join fellow Filipinos in thanking the brave rescuers for their heroism. I hope their families will get to see how much we all appreciate them. (The rescuers) inspire us to do selfless deeds in our everyday lives,” said RSA in a statement sent through e-mail.

Giving away that much money to the needy is no big deal for Ang, if we know him well.

Ang is a philanthropist whose heart is always for the poor because he identifies with them.

“I was once a poor boy from Tondo, sir,” RSA once told this columnist. He addresses anybody who’s not his subordinate “sir” or “ma’am,” a sign of humility.

Ang always tries to play the hero, albeit secretly.

He once helped a young woman who was disowned by her family. He gave her capital for a business venture that has since grown big. The woman belonged to a wealthy family whose members are friends to Ang.

At the onset of the pandemic two years ago, RSA ordered SMC’s subsidiary Ginebra San Miguel to shift a significant portion of its alcohol production from beverage to disinfectant to help minimize the incidence of COVID-19.

He then distributed the disinfectant free to the public.

What could be a more noble gesture than that?

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Joke! Joke! Joke!

Man at the confessional: Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. I have dirty jokes, porn videos and naked women’s pictures in messages on my mobile phone.

Priest: OK, son, forward all your sins to me.