DOJ: Gov’t ready to run water supply if water concessionaires bail
by Jeffrey DamicogJustice Secretary Menardo Guevarra assured the public on Monday that the government is ready to take over the water supply duties for Metro Manila in the event that the two water concessionaires Manila Water Co., Inc. and Maynilad Water Services decide to halt their services.
(TOTO LOZANO / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“The government will have to take over if necessary,” he told reporters as the government is committed to revising its current deals with the two companies.
On the other hand, the Secretary does not believe the situation will reach the point where the government will have to take over the water supply services for the metro.
“This is a problem that can be solved. I don’t have any reason to believe that we should be worried of stoppage of water supply,” he said.
“Unless and until the government is ready to efficiently run the distribution business, I guess for now we still have to rely on private concessionaires for the distribution of water supply,” he said.
The government is seeking to revise its deals with the two water concessionaires as the Department of Justice (DOJ) found at least a dozen onerous provisions in the 1997 water concession agreements.
“The agreement itself – marami namang okay na provisions (there are many good provisions). It’s just a matter of weeding out yung mga (those) provisions which can be considered as onerous or highly disadvantageous,” he said.
The Secretary said a team will be formed that will draft a new version of the concession agreement. The team will be composed of lawyers from the DOJ, Department of Finance (DOF), Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), and Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC).
“So we’ll hopefully come up with a revised version of the water concession agreement that does not include the onerous and what [are] considered illegal provisions… Once we are ready with our own version of what a good water concession agreement should be, that’s the time we will sit down with the water concessionaires,” he said.
Meanwhile, Guevarra also said the OSG is looking for remedies to address the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Singapore in favor of Manila Water which ordered the Philippine government to pay the company P7.39 billion which represents Manila Water’s losses from June 1, 2015 to Nov. 22, 2019 when the government prohibited the water concessionaire from implementing price hikes.
Guevarra said the OSG is looking into the possibility of appealing the ruling before the Singapore high court.
“Ang mas mahalaga kasi (what is more important) is not how to deal with their decision but what is more important is how we deal with the concession agreement itself,” he said.