THE Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) has tapped the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) to ensure the fire-resiliency of all jail facilities nationwide under their control.
In a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed by Jail Director Deogracias Tapayan and Fire Director Leonard Bañago, the two agencies aim not only to prevent jail facilities from destructive fires but also to guarantee the safety and security of persons deprived of liberty (PDL).
Tapayan said that in the agreement, the BFP will conduct a periodic fire safety inspection of all BJMP-manned jails to ensure their compliance to the country’s fire code.
He said the BFP, through its city and municipal fire marshals, shall also coordinate with concerned city, district or municipal jail wardens to ensure that jails within the locality undergo fire safety inspection.
The BFP shall also conduct lectures and seminars on fire safety measures, as well as workshops and fire drills to jail personnel to further educate them on recognizing structures, installations, materials and or devices in jail facilities that are substandard or non-compliant with the provisions of the rules and regulations of the Fire Code.
“We cannot accomplish our duties as jail officers if we fail to ensure that our detention facilities are fire-resilient, thus we need the invaluable assistance of the Fire Service in keeping our jails fire-proof and secured for our PDL,” Tapayan said.
“With the increasing jail population and overcrowding issues, there is also an increase in the number of detention facilities being built thereby it is important to emphasize the need to make every facility compliant with the fire standards implemented by the Fire Bureau,” he added.
In response, Bañago emphasized the importance and consideration of the fire code requirements in designing and constructing jail facilities to deliver more and provide better jail management services.
“Jails has a unique infrastructure design in terms of fire-safety, thus we encourage and ensure through this agreement the compliance with the requirements under the Revised Fire Code of the Philippines during the designing, planning and construction of jail facilities,” Bañago said.
Tapayan, however, directed all his men to extend utmost cooperation to the BFP during the conduct of fire safety inspection.
“We really pushed for this to happen because we can only entrust the fire safety of our jails and especially the lives of PDL under our care to the competence and tested dependability of our comrades from the BFP. We aspire not only to change lives, but to save lives by being proactive in this particular aspect,” he said. (SunStar Philippines)