More than 200 officials of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) is currently under investigation over an alleged ‘slot-for-sale’ scheme in the agency’s recruitment process.
This was disclosed by Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary Juanito Victor ‘Jonvic’ Remulla Jr. who cited that the investigation covers officials at various levels of the BFP, including all of the Bureau’s regional directors.
On record, five days ago a female senior fire officer in Pampanga was arrested after a BFP applicant alleged that she demanded ₱300,000 in exchange for a position in the agency.
The official in question has been placed under the custody of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) and is facing charges.
Secretary Remulla commended the BFP applicant for reporting the alleged extortion attempt.
The BFP Region 4A assistant regional director was likewise implicated in the case and has been relieved from his post while the probe continues.
Earlier in February, the DILG chief said cases had been filed against 11 BFP officials over the same ‘slot-for-sale’ scheme.
“I wants to stop the corruption in the BFP within six months. The ₱15-billion racket has been around for 25 years. Since I took charge of the DILG, I have exposed what is a deeply entrenched, ‘cancerous’ system of organized corruption inside the BFP,” Remulla pointed out.
“The BFP has become a criminal syndicate instead of a law enforcement and a first responder syndicate,” he added.
The secretary further stated that “(his) number 1 goal is to clean and strengthen the DILG institution, including the PNP, BFP and BJMP (Bureau of Jail Management and Penology).”
“I am warning all BFP officials: come forward now and confess, or we will pursue you until the end of your careers. We are currently investigating more than 200 people regarding slots for sale,” he announced.
Under this year’s recruitment quota, around 23,000 applicants competed for the BFP’s 2,504 vacant positions. Taking advantage of this, applicants are made to pay between ₱100,000 and ₱800,000 to the syndicate to guarantee employment.
Meanwhile, amidst the growing scandal, BFP officer-in-charge Fire Chief Superintendent Wilberto Rico Neil Ang Kwan Tiu clarified that the Bureau has begun implementing an online e-hiring system in which applicants are identified only through numbers or codes during the recruitment process.
“The names of applicants who qualify for the annual BFP quota are generated by the system and revealed only at the end of the process,” Kwan Tiu said while committing that the agency “(is) trying (its) best to institute the reforms of the secretary in the BFP. “With the new system we have, we are confident that the slot-for-sale scheme will be eliminated,” he optimized.
