Viral posts on social media show videos and images of mini three-wheeled electric fire vehicles that were allegedly purchased by the Department of Interior and Local Government at P10 million per unit for the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP). This is false.
In a Facebook reel posted on Oct. 5, a split screen showed Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla announcing that the DILG will purchase fire trucks from South Korea at a cut-rate price.
The other half of the screen showcased the viral fire tricycles matching Remulla’s speech in a video:
“The BFP used to purchase firetrucks at P16 million per fire truck. Today when we sign our agreements in two weeks, when we sign our agreement, the fire trucks will only be P10 million pesos each.”
Indicating that the forthcoming DILG deal with South Korea was for fire tricycles, not for fire trucks, the dubious post carried the caption:
“10M mini fire truck? parang flagpole lang ni pnoy 10M (It’s just like PNoy’s 10M flagpole).”
In an interview with reporters on Oct. 7, Remulla denied the claims that DILG purchased the mini fire tricycles for P10 million.
“To be clear, Nueva Ecija [LGU] ang bumili,” Remulla clarified in his interview.
In a post on its official Facebook page, the BFP made clear that the “LGU Fire Trike” is an initiative of the local government units of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija and Naval, Biliran to aid BFP firefighters in accessing communities where mobility is cramped and limited.
The original video in the reel was taken during Remulla’s speech at the Philippine Public Safety College’s 33rd Anniversary on Oct. 1, where he announced that DILG is set to procure 1,500 fire trucks from South Korea.
Meanwhile, the stitched video of the fire tricycles originated from a video posted by a BFP firefighter from Nueva Ecija.
The BFP’s official FB account posted a fact check to differentiate the measurements and water capacity between a fire truck and a fire trike.
As of writing, the posts published by FB pages Pilipinas Ngayon (created April 1, 2025), Random PH (created June 18, 2021), Sarah Duterte 2028 President Supporters (created June 9, 2026) and a TikTok user collectively garnered 29,784 reactions, 11,013 comments, 9,063, and 1,620,100 views.
