ABOUT 180 barangay fire volunteers in 18 Cebu City urban barangays received yesterday an allowance from the City Government.
This is the first time that City Hall gave allowances to volunteer barangay firefighters.
Each volunteer firefighter received P3,000 as allowance for March.
In an interview with Sun.Star Cebu, Councilor Dave Tumulak, head of the City's Peace and Order Program, said the allowance serves as honorarium of the volunteers, who do not get salaries from their barangays.
Barangays
The 180 fire volunteers are from Barangays Luz, Mabolo, Hipodromo, Sta. Cruz, Apas, Labangon, Ermita, Punta Princesa, Sambag II, Sto. Niño, Tisa, Tejero, Inayawan, Quiot, Pasil and Basak San Nicolas, among others.
Each of these barangays have 10 fire volunteers.
There are some villages though, such as Apas, which gives honorarium to their fire volunteers. Apas Barangay Captain Ramil Ayuman said the barangay gives each volunteer P2,000 per month.
Tumulak said the P3,000 that was released by the City covers the services rendered by the barangay fire volunteers for the month of March.
“March na ta magsugod og hatag nila, unya until December na na kay bag-o ra man sad na-approve ang budget (We started giving the honorarium for March. They will get honorarium until December as approved in the budget)," he said.
Budget
The City Government allotted P6.5 million for the fire volunteers under the P325 million first supplemental budget for this year. The budget was approved last month.
Tumulak said the barangay fire volunteers operate the small fire trucks of their villages. At present, only the 18 barangays have fire trucks.
Barangay firefighters complement the Bureau of Fire Protection.
When they are not responding to fire alarms, Tumulak said, the barangay fire volunteers serve as “force multiplier” of the Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
