By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
I’m sure Congress had deliberated long and hard on the new Republic Act 11589 (Bureau of Fire Protection Modernization Act) recently signed into law by President Duterte.
Most of its provisions are for the good of the public because they aim to strengthen the capabilities of the BFP and improve fire safety in the country.
For example, expanding the role of fire officers and training them to respond to rescue and emergency medical situations with the proper modern equipment allow them to level up their game. As such, their calling to be life and property savers now goes beyond battling fires.
The law calls for Congress to pass a budget that would attain fundamental goals in the BFP organization that have been neglected for decades, such as staffing to meet the ideal 1:2,000 ratio of firefighters to the population and adding about 1,000 fire trucks to the country’s fleet, among others.
It also endeavors to enhance the firefighting capability in fourth- to sixth-class municipalities that are underserved or have fire trucks over 20 years old. Also, firemen would be provided the proper equipment to protect them from exposure to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives materials.
On the other side of the coin, I can’t entirely agree with mandating the issuance of guns to our firemen, even if they undergo training in marksmanship and firearms safety. A sidearm doesn’t go with a fireman’s uniform, at least since the 1987 Constitution categorized them in the civil services, and I believe it should stay that way.
It seems the heart of the argument for the creation of this new armed Security and Protection Unit (SPU) in the BFP is “self-defense” and “maintaining peace and order,” given the rare instances when fire victims attack firemen over various tension-filled situations during a fire.
The mindset of a fireman going into a fire situation is to save lives and property; it should never be about maintaining peace and order, much less self-defense. That’s what police and barangay force multipliers are for, and that’s why they are deployed to every scene of a fire.
Under this new law, our taxpayers’ money will be used to buy guns placed in the hands of 2,282 fire officers. Our President thinks that’s okay because it only accounts for 7.9 percent of our 32,800-strong BFP and because they will be trained to be superb shooters.
For what? So that when tensions flare, people scramble for their belongings in a fire and disobey an order, our firemen can start shooting fire victims in the foot? Or does packing a sidearm make our more enterprising fire officers more convincing when referring fire extinguisher suppliers to owners of commercial establishments?
Living in a pandemic that has made life worse for families, businesses, healthcare services, and all other sectors, every bit of government spending must be put to better use than guns for firefighters. Come on!
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