|
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Guv OKs P10.2-M purchase of fire trucks for towns
As summer months get nearer, the government will need to make extra preparation against fire incidents.
With that, the Cebu Provincial Government will be purchasing fire trucks for the different municipalities.
The Capitol has set aside P10.2 million for this, and the bids and awards committee is now inviting suppliers or manufacturers to bid.
Pablo John Garcia, Capitol consultant on information, organization and management, said it is Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s decision to spend Provincial funds for this although it is the primary responsibility of the National Government.
“If we wait for the national government to purchase the trucks, we cannot guess when the next fire is. To be better prepared against fire, the governor decided to purchase these fire trucks,” Pablo John said, pointing out that next month is already Fire Prevention Month.
The governor earlier said that Cebu Province will “take care of its own, because it can.”
Cebu Province has a huge surplus and with zero liabilities.
Town-recipients of the fire trucks will take care of the maintenance, while the Bureau of Fire Protection committed to assign personnel to man them.
This is the same system the Capitol is using when it distributed police jeeps to the towns.
Governor Garcia doesn’t want a repeat of last year’s incident in Badian where policemen acted as firemen because there were no trained BFP personnel there.
BFP officials initially said that they could not assign BFP personnel to fire trucks owned by local government units.
It is the agency’s policy that the fire trucks should be turned over to the bureau before BFP-trained personnel will be deployed to man these trucks.
But Garcia told them that it is BFP’s mandate to put up a fire station in every town, a mandate that it failed to comply with, so the Province has to step in.
After a meeting last December, the BFP and the governor agreed that the Province will maintain the ownership of the fire trucks and that BFP will still provide personnel. (MBG)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 23, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
