SAN JOSE, Antique – The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Western Visayas welcomed its 249 recruits in a ceremony at Camp Fullon in this capital town.
BFP regional director Senior Superintendent Roderick Aguto on Monday urged the new batch to put service to the BFP as their priority in life.
“Fix your mind, entertain nothing but to serve the bureau,” he said to the new members who belongs to the “Buhawi” class.
The reception rite is part of the process before they are being assigned to the different fire stations in the highly urbanized cities and first-class municipalities for their three months orientation. They already started their first day of work last week.
The recruits, after their three months orientation, will be recalled to the BFP regional office before they would be given their assigned station for their actual duties.
The neophytes are composed of 117 females and 132 males.
As part of the reception rites, they underwent physical exercises and water canon ceremony that ended with a “boodle” fight for their lunch.
Meanwhile, provincial fire marshal Superintendent Randy Pudadera said the selection process for the new recruits must be tough.
“They are being prepared to save lives and properties,” Pudadera stressed
To be a hero is not easy, it needs trained people willing to sacrifice, he added.
He said the new recruits will beef up the lack of personnel especially in Antique where there are only 139 organic personnel.
“Of the new recruits, Antique will have 26 new Fire Officers 1,” he said.
Pudadera said they will help address the shortage of personnel since Antique needs 266 personnel to meet the ideal ratio of one firefighter for every 2,000 population.
Antique has a total population of 582,012 based on the 2015 data of the Philippine Statistics Authority. (With a report from PNA/PN)
