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Monday, January 23, 2017
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CEBU City – Only the mayor of this city has the authority to appoint members of the Board of Directors of the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD), the Supreme Court has ruled.
The ruling stemmed from the case then Cebu governor and now Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia (3rd District) filed questioning the appointment of Joel Mari Yu as MCWD Board member on Feb. 22, 2008 by then Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña.
Osmeña was again elected mayor in the May 2016 election.
In July 2002 then Cebu governor Pablo Garcia, Gwendolyn’s father, asserted his authority to appoint members of the MCWD Board since the active water service connections in the city had been below 75 percent of the MCWD’s total active water service connection.
Pablo Garcia based his argument on Section 3 (b) of Presidential Decree 198, or the Provincial Water Utilities Act of 1973, through which the MCWD was created in 1974.
The MCWD itself filed a case for declaratory relief on this provision before a regional trial court, seeking to declare the Cebu City mayor as the sole appointing authority of its Board, but the court dismissed the petition.
When two MCWD Board posts were left vacant, Garcia and Osmeña — then the governor and mayor, respectively — jointly appointed Adelino Sitoy and Adelino Pacana to fill the vacancies.
But Sitoy’s post was deemed vacated upon his election as mayor of Cordova town in the 2007 election. Osmeña, on Feb. 22, 2008, appointed Joel Mari Yu to fill the vacated slot.
On June 13, 2008, Gwendolyn Garcia filed a complaint seeking to annul Yu’s appointment.
In a decision penned by Associate Justice Lucas P. Bersamin, the Supreme Court noted that despite the expiration of Yu’s term in 2012, the complaint should be still decided because of the public interest involved.
It ruled that Section 3(b) of PD 198, to which the older Garcia had anchored his argument, should be partially struck down as it contradicted the local autonomy granted by the 1987 Constitution to local government units.
It was also inconsistent with the Local Government Code, the high court said.
“Clearly, the assailed provision no longer provided for substantial distinction because, firstly, it ignored that the MCWD was built without the participation of the provincial government. Secondly, it failed to consider that the MCWD existed to serve the community that represents the needs of the majority of the active water service connections. And thirdly, the main objective of the decree was to improve the water service while keeping up with the needs of the growing population,” part of the decision read. (PNA)
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