‘DTI firm fails to deliver P3.27 billion fire stations, equipment’

MANILA, Philippines — At least 242 towns have no fire stations or fire trucks, but a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-attached corporation whose task is to import goods has not been able to complete even one of the 98 fire stations it was contracted to build for P892 million, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto lamented yesterday.

The undelivered fire stations are the tip of the iceberg of the P3.27 billion worth of supplies, materials and buildings that the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) has yet to deliver to the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Recto said.

“To use firemen’s parlance, the delay has reached ‘general alarm,’” Recto said, noting that the undermanned and under-equipped BFP battled 18,612 fires last year, 12 percent more than in 2018.

“The next question is, why would an import corporation under the trade department be given taxpayer funds for a project which is infrastructure in nature? I am asking this because unfamiliarity with the work could be the reason for the delay. It is like asking (Health Secretary Francisco) Duque to build flyovers,” he said.

He said PITC’s failures are detailed in the audited financials of the BFP for fiscal year 2019, adding the flops were unfair to the men and women of the fire bureau who respond to emergencies in minutes, yet have to wait years for equipment they badly need.

Recto said the Commission on Audit (COA) noted the BFP had 170 unfinished fire stations as of end of 2019. Some of the projects were funded as far back as 2015.

Among the uncompleted buildings are 98 fire stations the PITC was under contract to build.

Funding for the 87 fire stations came from Fire Code fees in the amount of P787.5 million, plus the P104.8 million for 11 stations from the General Appropriations Act of 2017. The funds were all transferred to PITC.

In addition to the unfinished fire stations, the COA reported that PITC has yet to deliver to BFP two lots of equipment, Recto said.

“One is P997 million worth of fire trucks, aerial ladders and various equipment, and the other is a fleet of fire trucks with an allocation of P1.5 billion,” he said.

Noting that these were official audit reports as of end-2019, Recto hopes “that these equipment and buildings have been delivered during the quarantine.”

“But still, this policy question remains: why would a DTI import trading corporation, chaired by the trade secretary, be in the construction business?” the senator asked.

He warned there might be billions of pesos worth of more unimplemented projects pending in the PITC.

Recto said Congress should exercise continuous oversight of the “pasa-buy” business in government procurement, where agencies transfer funds to government-owned and controlled corporations “to subcontract the procurement, only to face delays in delivery.”