Metro fire safety inspectors ousted amid BFP ‘cleansing’

The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) has relieved all fire safety inspectors in Metro Manila as part of a sweeping effort to overhaul the agency’s enforcement system and eliminate corruption.

Fire chief supt. Wilberto Rico Neil Kwan Tiu, BFP officer-in-charge, ordered the mass relief in a 31 March memorandum.

The directive, signed by chief of directorial staff fire chief supt. Gilbert Dolot, instructs the National Capital Region (NCR) acting chief to immediately remove all personnel currently serving as fire safety inspectors (FSIs).

Kwan Tiu said the capital region was chosen as the pilot site for these reforms because it is the country’s premier region with the highest concentration of business establishments.

“The move aims to establish a new standard for transparency before the program is expanded to other regions,” Kwan Tiu said in a statement.

The relieved inspectors will be replaced by qualified personnel who have no prior experience in the fire safety inspection service, with selections based on training and service records.

Kwan Tiu cited that if the NCR branch lacks enough qualified staff, personnel from outside the region will be brought in to fill the gap.

Following the national directive, Metro Manila Fire chief fire senior supt. Archie Anumang issued a localized memorandum directing district fire marshals to implement the order.

The decision has met internal resistance. Some relieved inspectors, speaking on the condition of anonymity, argued that the sudden turnover could allow business establishments to bypass safety requirements previously mandated during inspections.

“Our names and expertise are at stake here,” one inspector said. “Not all FSIs in the metropolis are rotten. We affixed our signatures to inspection reports to prove that the requirements we set for certain establishments are necessary.”