The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) has relieved a senior commissioned officer from his post after he was implicated in an illegal “slot-for-sale” recruitment scheme targeting prospective fire service applicants.
BFP spokesperson Superintendent Anthony Arroyo confirmed that the implicated officer, whose rank is equivalent to at least a colonel, was transferred to the Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit at the BFP National Headquarters in Quezon City pending an investigation. Arroyo declined to name the official while inquiries are ongoing.
The administrative action follows the arrest of a female non-commissioned officer, a Senior Fire Officer 1 assigned to BFP-National Capital Region, during a joint Philippine National Police (PNP) and BFP entrapment operation in San Fernando City, Pampanga, on Monday night.
Authorities launched the operation after a BFP applicant reported that the female suspect offered to guarantee a entry slot into the bureau in exchange for P500,000. Upon her arrest, the suspect named the senior commissioned officer as her accomplice in the extortion scheme.
“The immediate action of our officer-in-charge, Chief Superintendent Wilberto Rico Neil Kwan Tiu, is to assign the implicated senior officer to the Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit for the investigation,” Arroyo said, promising a thorough probe. “We are not going to let this pass. We condemn this kind of activity.”
The arrested firefighter remains under the custody of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), which is preparing formal criminal charges. Meanwhile, the BFP has launched a separate internal administrative investigation against her.