MANILA, Philippines — Senator Panfilo Lacson sought for the restoration of the quick response fund (QRF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) under the 2021 national budget.
“I will introduce the amendment to restore the QRF for the PNP and the BFP,” Lacson said during the budget deliberation of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Tuesday.
The PNP and the BFP are both attached agencies of the DILG.
Lacson then asked how much the PNP and the BFP would need for their QRF.
The PNP would need P125 million while the BFP would need P75 million, according to Senator Sonny Angara, who was defending the budget of the DILG.
“So that’s around P200 million in total,” Angara noted.
Before this, it was disclosed that there is no allocation for the QRF of both the PNP and the BFP under the proposed 2021 budget.
“These [PNP and BFP personnel] are the frontliners, even during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lacson pointed out.
A review of previous budgets, the senator also noted that P75 million each were allocated for the PNP and the BFP for their QRF in 2016.
But this was not released “due to stringent requirements,” according to Angara.
“So from 2016 to date, how did they [PNP and BFP] cope with the lack of funds for QRF? San nila kinukuha ngayon? (Where are they getting such funds from?) Because they continuously respond to calamities,” Lacson then asked.
“In the Taal [eruption] for example, I heard at least six of their personnel [had problems with their] lungs because of the sulfur,” he added.
Angara said the PNP and the BFP would usually source funds from their regular budget to respond to calamities.
Sometimes, they would request funding from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the senator added.
“But matagal daw ang processing nung mga requests (the processing of the requests take a long time). They would appreciate it very much if the body were to augment these funds,” Angara said.