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[av_heading heading=’JOE TO MIWD: NOT SO FAST Mayor urges water district to halt making decisions ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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ILOILO City – While he seeks clarification on who really has the authority to appoint the members of the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) board, Mayor Jose Espinosa III said officials of the water district must refrain from taking actions or making decisions that the city government may want to have a say.
According to the city mayor, he learned about a privatization scheme being proposed to MIWD. He feared this could burden consumers.
Espinosa bared yesterday a copy of a Supreme Court en banc resolution on the case of Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) declaring the city mayor of Cebu as the appointing authority of the water district’s board of directors.
He believed this is applicable to MIWD, too.
The Supreme Court “annul(led) and set aside (the) decision rendered in Civil Case No. CEB-3449 on Nov. 16, 2010 by the Regional Trial Court 18 in Cebu City; and declare(d) as unconstitutional Section 3 (b) of Presidential Decree No. 198 to the extent that it applies to highly urbanized cities like the City of Cebu and to component cities with charters expressly providing for their voters not to be eligible to vote for the officials of the provinces to which they belong, for being in violation of the express policy of the 1987 Constitution on local autonomy, the 1991 Local Government Code and subsequent statutory enactments, and for being also in violation of the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause.”
Section 3 of Presidential Decree No. 198 or the Local Water District Law provides that if more than 75 percent of the total concessionaires are found in the city, the appointing authority shall be the city mayor. However, if the total number of concessionaires in the city is below 75 percent, the appointing authority shall be the governor.
“Whatever transactions the MIWD currently have, it must refrain from making decisions until we can really see with certainty ang decision sang Supreme Court,” said Espinosa.
He saw similarities between MCWD and MIWD with respect on who should be the appointing authority of the water district board.
In July 21, 2011 then city mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog filed a civil case against the Local Water Utilities Administration to determine who had the authority to appoint MIWD directors.
Two years after, on September 2013, the power to appoint the members of the MIWD board shifted from the Iloilo City mayor to the Iloilo provincial governor. Judge Danilo Galvez of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) affirmed the findings of the body he created to look into the number of active concessionaires of MIWD.
A fact-finding commission reported that the total number of concessionaires in Iloilo City as of April 30, 2013 was 21,130 or 66.14 percent of the total number of concessionaires in the entire MIWD coverage area, which was then at 31,948. The combined number of concessionaires from Cabatuan, Leganes, Maasin, Oton, Pavia, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara reached 10,818 or 33.86 percent of the grand total.
Espinosa said he wanted a new count.
His main concern, according to the mayor, was the city government’s apparent lack of voice in MIWD’s operations even if the water district was primarily created for Iloilo City.
“Nga indi man ma-disadvantage ang syudad,” said Espinosa. “Sa matrix nila kag mga charges, kita man gihapon iguon sina.”
“Wala gid kita sang say sa MIWD. Wala kita nakahibalo sang nagahinabo subong. How are they negotiating with private entities? Nakabati lang ta ‘ya nga may ara na Maynilad, Manila
Water nga gusto magsulod. Waay gid kita ‘ya bala sang partisipasyon,” said Espinosa.
According to the mayor, he learned that a proposal submitted to MIWD was “more on business so ang ginakulbaan ko basi ang tendency, kay the project is a little bit big at P12 billion…in all certainty i-pass on sa consumers…”/PN
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