Senior Supt. Samuel Tadeo (second from left), Bureau of Fire Protection in Central Visayas director, joins fire fighters during this year’s BFP-7’s fire prevention month activities.
CDN FILE PHOTO
THE Bureau of Fire Protection in Central Visayas (BFP-7) is looking into allegations of extortion from applicants allegedly done by a senior fire officer and a former staff member of the Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA).
Senior Supt. Samuel Tadeo said that they were focusing on the unauthenticated waivers of the applicants which was one of the factors for their failure to be hired by the BFP-7.
Tadeo, however, said that they were also focusing on looking the waivers because there are no complaints filed yet.
“Yes there were accusations but walang nag-file ng formal complaint. Open naman yung opisina natin sa mga ganyan (Yes there were accusations but no one filed for a formal complaint. Our office is open for that complaints),” Tadeo said.
He said he is encouraging those who had been allegedly victimized to file a complaint against those who had done them wrong in the office so that they could formally investigate and perhaps if their allegations are proven true, sanction those who had done them wrong.
Tadeo was referring to applicants who sent a letter to Cebu Daily News, claiming that a fire officer allegedly asked P13,000 to P25,000 from them for a waiver from OMA.
He said that an applicant, who belongs to an ethnic or an indigenous group, is required to get a waiver from offices such as OMA so that requirements such as the height – 5’4” for male and 5’2” for female – would be waived.
The applicants in their letter claimed that most of them failed in the height requirements of the BFP.
Thus, they were told to seek the help of the fire officer, who allegedly extorted money from them, for the waiver.
Tadeo said that the waiver of these applicants were not authenticated by OMA in the region.
“Pina-imbestigahan din namin yan. Kasi hindi naman bureau yung nagbibigay ng waiver. So wala sa amin yung waiver. Hindi galing sa amin (We also investigated that because the bureau does not issue any waiver. The waiver never came from us),” Tadeo said.
In their letter to CDN, the applicants cited a woman allegedly from OMA, who gave them the waiver.
Mao Manonggiring, OMA regional director, told CDN that the woman was a former employee of their office.
In their investigation, Tadeo said that it also turned out that the employee had been issuing waivers that were not genuine.
Tadeo encouraged those who were wronged by these people to file a complaint at their office so that they could take legal action against those who duped them.