The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is now preparing administrative charges against the entire unit of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Silang, Cavite for alleged rampant money-making racket targeting small businessmen.

DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the latest victim was his nephew whom he said suffered from the modus of the local BFP unit during his application for business, particularly in getting fire inspection certificate for a convenience store.

He narrated that his nephew paid fire inspection fee last year but no inspection actually took place, which resulted in the non-issuance of a fire safety inspection certificate.

When his nephew applied for business renewal in January this year, he was tasked to produce the fire safety inspection certificate and after presenting that he paid for it but no inspection was made, he was advised to comply with the requirement of refilling the fire extinguishers.

The fireman even told his nephew where to refill but after complying and paying P2,400 for the refill, the BFP told his nephew that the fire extinguishers are still not compliant, apparently in a bid to force businessmen to buy new ones.

“So do you see the pattern (of money-making modus)? Here in the BFP, they will take advantage of you for as long as they see any opportunity to do it. It is the businessmen, particularly the small businessmen, who suffer,” said Remulla.

He said he already ordered the filing of the cases against the entire BFP unit of Silang, Cavite, including the fire chief.

What about the bodycam?

It was Remulla who exposed the modus in the BFP last year and as part of the measures to address it, he ordered the procurement of bodycams and required fire inspectors to wear them during inspections.

But recently, Remulla said they found out that some BFP personnel were able to come up with the new modus to continue the alleged money-making racket.

“What they do now is they sell the fire extinguishers before the inspection. They reversed the policy, instead of doing the fire inspection first, what they did is to sell the fire extinguishers,” said Remulla.

“They would say, ‘the fire inspectors are set to arrive so you have to buy the fire extinguishers and I will make sure that you pass the inspection’. That’s the modus now,” he added.

Remulla said he discovered the new modus during the assessment and intelligence-gathering.

P15 B-racket

Remulla said what happened in Cavite involving his nephew reflects the modus of the BFP across the country.

“It is a P15 billion a year racket of the BFP. We should put an end to this and I will not stop until this problem is addressed,” said Remulla.

He pointed out that it is the small businessmen who suffer the most and with more than 90 percent of businesses in the country are composed of small and medium enterprises, this means big bucks for erring BFP personnel.

“They have been doing that for more than 25 years and they thought that nobody would dare to do something about it,” said Remulla.

“And they even thought that my term of office is just short. Well, I mean business. If I still have two years remaining, I will spend all the remaining time to address this,” he added.