Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 1) — Fire prevention and jail management should be turned over to local governments which are better able to handle these tasks, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Thursday.
“If you look at the situation on the ground, it is difficult to accept that the local government has no capacity to run fire departments,” said Drilon at the hearing on the Interior Department’s proposed 2021 budget.
The senator noted that the Bureau of Fire Protection did not exist before the martial law era when city and provincial jails, which are now under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, were under local government units.
He said devolving these tasks would allow the government to raise more funds for the internal revenue allotment of LGUs which has a proposed budget of P695 billion in 2021 and P1 trillion in 2022.
“Next year, at this time, we’ll be confronted by a ₱1.083 trillion allocation for IRA for 2022 and I do not know what will happen with that kind of a burden on the national budget,” Drilon raised.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said ₱1.083 trillion would be allocated for the 2022 IRA if regions would get their share from all national taxes as provided for in a Supreme Court ruling.
Año said LGUs were not ready to take on the responsibility of fire prevention, arguing that a national agency had “better purchasing powers” for fire trucks and other equipment.
For his part, BJMP Director Allan Iral said they often turn to local governments for funds to buy land for more facilities. Iral said that for 2021, the Budget Department only provided a budget to put up perimeter fences on existing structures.
“This validates my proposal,” Drilon said. “Do you think a local executive can afford not to build jails if he sees that his jail is congested?”
Año said he would take Drilon’s suggestions into consideration.
