PRIVILEGE SPEECH

May 5, 2015
Mr. President, members of this August body, people in the gallery, to all Davaoeos, friends,
ladies and gentlemen, Good Morning!
I rise today as a matter of privilege.
We have this saying that goes Maayo pay makawatan kaysa masunugan.

Kay pag

masunugan ta dako kayo ang kadaot ug damyos ang atong mahi-aguman.

It is not even limited only to damage to property but more importantly damage to people
who may be injured or who may lose their lives because of fire incidents.
The most common form of firefighting equipment are fire extinguishers and sprinklers. This
sprinkler

system is a combined detection and fighting mechanism.

But firefighting

equipments, must be used to limit the spread of fire and to enable safe evacuation.
However, fire extinguisher and sprinkles are good only for friendly fires but never in hostile
fires where you need well-conditioned fire trucks to control it.
Hence, when there are fire incidents, people mostly rely on the fire department to
immediately come to their rescue.
However, putting out fire does not depend solely on fire fighters. The brave crew of our
Bureau of Fire and Protection needs equipments such as fire trucks that are in good working
conditions.
It is alarming to think that usually fire occurs in peoples homes that have no fire safety
equipments.

Fire extinguishers, sprinklers and fire alarms are usually found only in

commercial buildings. Hence, the public solely depend on the fire station to send them fire
trucks in case of fire.
The Fire Auxiliary Services (911) of Davao City has 4 serviceable fire trucks and the Bureau
of Fire and Protection has only 17 serviceable fire trucks for the whole Davao City. Not only
that, most of these fire trucks under the Bureau of Fire and Protection (BFP) are old. In fact
the BFPs two oldest fire trucks were acquired in 1961 (see attached document from BFP).
It is unfortunate to note that until now we still use those two oldest fire trucks. The newest
fire truck of the Bureau of Fire and Protection was acquired in 2013.
Those 21 fire trucks are not anymore effective in servicing the whole City especially if we
take into consideration the increasing number of population of Davao City.
As required by the Fire Code, a fire safety inspection fee of 10% of the fees charged by the
City Government must be paid. This is a requisite to acquire a business permit. A fee is a
charge or payment of service. Whenever a certain fee is required, the public generally gets
something in return for it. In this case, it is the prompt and adequate response to calls for

help.

But, how can we adequately and promptly respond to calls for help if we only have

21 fire trucks most of which are old?

We need to recompense people for what they have been paying. We can do this by giving
them better services such as protecting their lives and properties.
Fire trucks in better working conditions are necessary in order to protect the peoples lives
and their properties against fire. Having additional brand new fire trucks in Davao City will
help fire and rescue authorities to improve the delivery of their services to the inhabitants
of this City.
In conclusion, I would like to pass a resolution urging the DILG Secretary Mar Roxas to
provide additional new Fire trucks to Davao City through Bureau of Fire and Protection (BFP)
and Fire Auxiliary Service (911).

DR. BERNARD E. AL-AG

City Councilor 3rd District
Davao City

People pay this fee expecting the City to also deliver the service they paid for. Thus, the
City should also provide the services

When we require people to pay the said fee, they expect that the City will also
deliver the service they paid for.

In this instance, I fear we have to say we have been remiss in our duty to the
people.