Hundreds of municipalities do not yet have firetrucks, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) chief said during the turnover ceremony in Quezon City on Tuesday.

"On the data of the BFP all of the 145 cities in the country have fire trucks while in the 1,489 municipalities, only 287 do not yet have fire trucks. In total we have 2,848 fire trucks, of which 2,358 are BFP-owned and 490 are owned by the LGU ( local government units). We continue to complete these in the coming years," said BFP Chief Fire Director Jose Segundo Ebang Jr. in his speech during the turnover of 74 fire trucks in Camp Aguinaldo.

"To achieve this, with the help of the local government unit the BFP strengthens the enforcement of the new implementing rules and regulation of the Fire Code of the Philippines in the whole country, especially in the collection of fire code fees which become wider in the export processing zones," he added.

Ebang said collections from fire code fees have reached P10.8 billion since 2009.

The ceremony, led by President Rodrigo Duterte, was also attended by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Ano.

Ebang also expressed gratitude to Duterte for his support on the modernization of the Bureau of Fire Protection.

"Today let me thank the president on his support to push the modernization of he BFP, the 10 billion fire protection modernization act of 2019 is a big help," he said.

"To all the towns which were not yet given new fire trucks, we are asking for your understanding," he added. Robina Asido/DMS