(CNN Philippines) — You’re lucky if you have a fire truck near your house.
Ideally, each town and city should have at least one fire truck.
This is far from reality.
In the Philippines, 554 towns and one city are without a single fire truck.
That’s about 40% of the Philippines 1,490 towns and 144 cities, or a total of 1,634 such units.
What happens is that places without fire trucks would have to wait for their nearest neighbors to send over their own trucks, according to Supt. Renato Martial, spokesman of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).
In its bid to immediately solve the problem, the BFP has found itself under fire for a multimillion-peso deal to procure fire trucks.
Back in 2012, the BFP was criticized for a billion-peso deal to procure fire trucks.
The delivery of those trucks have not yet even been completed, and now the bureau has entered into another big procurement.
Earlier this year, the fire bureau bid out a supply contract for 469 fire trucks to be distributed all over the country.
It’s going to cost P2.577 billion — the BFP’s biggest procurement to date.
The contract was awarded last January and the delivery expected in batches starting July.
Some prototypes of the trucks have arrived. Right now members of the BFP acceptance committee are checking if the units have the right specifications. So far they don’t seeing any problem.
Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz of the Abakada party-list group, had previously questioned the 2012 procurement. And he is not happy about this latest purchase.
He plans to ask the House Committee on Public Order and Safety to look into this deal, which he says could be tainted with irregularities.
“This is another issue that has to be looked into, because we’ve had lots of problems as far as the Bureau of Fire Protection is concerned,” he said. “Otherwise, we’ll have another tragedy like what happened in Valenzuela, which we have said is the Mamasapano of the labor sector.”
De la Cruz means the fire that struck a factory of Kentex Manufacturing Corp., in which 72 people died.
The procurement is now being scrutinized in court, on allegations that the bidding was anomalous.
In March, one of the losing bidders — LDLA Marketing — filed a civil case against Director Ariel Barayuga, the BFP chief; Bids and Awards Committee; and the winning bidder, a joint venture between Kolonwel Trading and China-based Hubei Jiangan Special Automobile Co.
LDLA Marketing claims Barayuga and the BFP-BAC colluded with Kolonwel Trading and carried out a “sham” bidding.
Marcial, the BFP spokesman, says losing bidders usually file a protest or a complaint.
He says he doesn’t think officials would put their careers at risk by getting into anomalous deals.
In its petition before the court, LDLA claims the process was cut short so that it could no longer protest the bidding result.
The company claims the BFP dismissed its complaint regarding the bidding results the same day it awarded the contract.
Kolonwel was also allegedly notified of the bidding four months before the BFP even announced its plan to buy fire trucks.
Kolonwel marketing has declined requests from CNN Philippines for an interview. But in its reply to the court, the company said it couldn’t be faulted for preparing for future biddings.
Barayuga also declined our requests for interview, saying thatthe case is still pending in court.
LDLA’s bid was P251 million lower than Kolonwel’s.
Kolonwel bagged the deal after LDLA was disqualified for noncompliance with bid requirements.
Compared with earlier fire trucks purchases, however, Kolonwel trucks are cheaper by P2 million to P3 million each.
But are the savings worth it?
Rep. Arnel Ty of the LPGMA party-list groupo, who has joined a volunteer fire brigade, has some apprehensions.
“Probably ang issue doon ay yung after-sale service,” he says. “Walang spare parts yan dito sa Pilipinas. Disposable engine yan. Hindi yan nare-repair.”
[Translation: “Probably the issue there is the after-sale service. Those truck don’t have spare parts in the Philippines. They have disposable engines. They can’t be repaired.”]
CNN Philippines’ secured a list of Kolonwel’s service centers.
For the 469 trucks, the company contracted three service centers — one each in Luzon, in the Visayas, and in Mindanao.
One repair shop — the Cebu Automechanika Repair Shop Service Center in Mandaule City — confirmed that it was contracted by the BFP.
An employee there admitted, however, that the shop doesn’t service fire trucks frequently.
Another shop — the Rapidé Auto Service Experts in San Pedro, Laguna — turned out to be one of Kolonwel’s service centers. It’s known for servicing small vehicles.
Its owner also confirmed being contracted for the fire trucks.
Meanwhile, one of the owners of anoter auto repair shop — the Far-Go Lapasan in Cagayan de Oro City — denied having any contract to service BFP fire trucks.
The official refused to be interviewed on camera. But he said that he knows one of Kolonwel’s supposed contact persons. That person is not a Kolonwel employee but works for the hotel where the company is renting office space.
