MANILA — The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives wants a congressional investigation into what they called the "restrictive and questionable fire truck procurement bidding process" of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).

House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas, and Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel have filed House Joint Resolution 10 which calls for an investigation into the BFP's procurement process by the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.

The resolution said that among the restrictions is the limitation of qualified bidders to those that had been engaged in the manufacture or assembly of fire trucks and/or rescue truck vehicles for at least 15 years in the Philippines prior to the opening of the bids.

"This is a major departure from the previous bidding process," the resolution noted.

It also said that with the present requirement limiting the participation of bidders only to manufacturers and assemblers of fire trucks, only one or two bidders may qualify.

"Available records and documents would also show that the BFP restrictive procurement process practically gives undue advantage since 2018 to only two joint venture entities: JROG MARKETING (JROG) which carries the Isuzu brand of engine, cab and chassis and F. CURA INDUSTRIES (CURA), which carry the Hino brand engine, cab and chassis," the lawmakers said in the resolution.

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Bernard Dy, Panpisco Technologies president and one of the complaining fire truck suppliers, said the competitiveness that is being desired by the procurement law is not achieved because the eligibility requirements are "very stiff."

"A lot of companies technically can't comply," he told ANC's "Rundown" on Wednesday, noting that only 1 bidder had qualified in BFP's Dec. 9 bidding.

"So hindi nama-maximize, sayang 'yung pera ng bayan," Dy said.

His company had written letters to the BFP questioning the legal basis of the eligibility requirements, Dy said, but they didn't get a response.

For Alfred Joseph Biscayda, consultant of prospective bidders, the additional qualifications are meant to exclude other bidders.

"If they conducted properly a feasibility study, they would find out that only 1 or 2 manufacturers are assemblers of this fire truck exists in the Philippines," Biscayda said.

Biscayda also alleged that the price of fire trucks "almost doubled" in 2018.

"From almost P6 million the price of the fire truck in 2015, it became almost P12 million per unit," he said.

"Only... 2 bidders were able to bag this series of contracts from the BFP. It's very obvious that they are favored because the contract amount is somewhat closer to the approved budget of the contract. Kumbaga sinagad ang bid price."

According to the lawmakers, with the restrictions made by the BFP, only Isuzu and Hino brands of engine, cab, and chassis "can possibly be offered for procurement."

"Only bidders with established connections with the exclusive distributors/assemblers of the Isuzu and Hino brands can participate in biddings, excluding in the process other quality brands that may possibly even be advantageous to the government and not as expensive as the favored ones, if only a genuine competitive bidding process is done," they said.

ANC has asked for an interview with the BFP chief but he was not available, while the 2 firms mentioned have yet to issue their statements on the issue.

—with a report from RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News