PRIVILEGE SPEECH OF REP. BERNADETTE HERERRA-DY
ON THE WATER CONCESSIONS ISSUE
ON THE WATER CONCESSIONS ISSUE
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “an unjust law, is no law at all”. By extension I dare say an unjust contract, is no contract at all. I speak of contracts that are overly one-sided, and extend to the level of an intolerable loss of our sovereignty.
I refer, of course, to the 1997 water concession agreements entered into with Manila Water Company and Maynilad. These contracts are bursting with provisions of numerous illegalities and excessive misinterpretations all to the detriment of the Filipino people!
It is high time that we truly enforce accountability to those responsible for defrauding the consumers for the benefit of private interests! Allow me to describe these provisions for you.
First, to consider the concessionaires as mere agents of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, is by all means a farce! These companies are public utilities, no ifs and buts about it. For those who insist on their status as agents of MWSS, you are responsible for allowing these companies to pass on “business expenses” and corporate income taxes that they should rightfully be paying, all to the consumers. These include the outlandish and ridiculous provisions in the concession agreements to pass on to the consumers all legal and arbitration expenses.
In 2018 alone, these two concessionaires sought to pass on to the consumers by increasing rates to cover corporate expenses such as donations, travel expenses, sports expenses, legal and arbitration fees, and corporate income taxes! Gastos nila, taongbayan ang magbabayad?
Through this same “agency treatment” these companies have abused the system even further, determining that the maximum 12% limit rate of return imposed on public utilities do not apply to them as they are “mere agents”.
This alone is a preposterous disservice to the country! However as they often say on TV shopping shows, “wait there’s more”!
The government has bent-over backwards in favor of these companies! The so-called “innovation” of the MWSS Regulatory Office in its interpretation of the Concession Agreement allowed the concessionaires to collect fees via the water tariff capital investment plans and programs that have not yet been implemented or for those that have already been abandoned.
They were allowed to bill consumers for projects that to this day have yet to be fully implemented. To name only a few:
The Wawa Dam Project (PhP 732 million),
The Laguna Lake Project (PhP 100 million),
The Laiban Dam Project (PhP 45.3 billion),
The Pinugay Sewerage Treatment Project (PhP 600 million and overpriced),
The Angat Water Reliability Projects (PhP 5.4 billion), and
The Earthquake Contingency Project (PhP 4.130 billion).
The Laguna Lake Project (PhP 100 million),
The Laiban Dam Project (PhP 45.3 billion),
The Pinugay Sewerage Treatment Project (PhP 600 million and overpriced),
The Angat Water Reliability Projects (PhP 5.4 billion), and
The Earthquake Contingency Project (PhP 4.130 billion).
For these six projects alone, a total of 56.262 billion pesos have been billed in advance from the Filipino people. I ask, where are these projects today? Why is it that the benefit from these haven’t been felt by the people? How is it that this year alone our own people suffered from a massive systematic water shortage that disrupted the national capital region?
Let’s recap, shall we? These companies charge to the consumers various business expenses, and have the people pre-pay for projects some of which are already abandoned or yet to be fully implemented, and they want the government to pay 10 billion pesos through their arbitration?
Have they performed their duties and responsibilities from the concession agreements they consider to sacred? I use this term lightly, as they themselves do not seem to respect the concession agreements they anchor their claims. The very agreements themselves all point to the fact that they are public utilities and the only semblance of any agency is to allow them to be empowered agents of the MWSS to apply for the exercise of governmental functions such as easement, eminent domain, and right of way.
Existing law, jurisprudence, and overall basic common sense all point to the conclusion that water distribution and provision of sewerage services to the general public, granted by concession from the MWSS as the original public utility from its legislative Charter. So the MWSS is a public utility and it enters into concession agreements to the two companies, and all of a sudden they aren’t public utilities themselves?
But let’s focus on the other issues for now. After all, they want government to uphold their concession agreements. What has happened to the requirement of the very same concession agreements for these companies to provide proper sewerage and sanitation systems? Where are the “international standard” piping systems they are supposed to have created? Ladies and gentlemen, these concessionaires, these companies, are still using the drainage systems of the DPWH. These drains are ill-suited for sewerage and sanitation, and once the annual rains come, sewage is included in the floodwaters, increasing the spread of diseases such as leptospirosis, dengue, dysentery, among others, as well as causing the spread of toxic elements that are hazardous to the public.
When we experience services that we are not satisfied with, what do we do? As consumers we can choose not to patronize those establishments. Pag hinde tayo masaya sa serbisyo ano ang ginagawa natin?
Even with more than a decade to go under their current agreements, the MWSS did the unthinkable. In 2014 it extended these agreements by an additional 15 years, to expire in 2037.
Again let’s recap. We pay for their corporate income taxes and other business expenses, advanced for projects that are non-existent or abandoned, look the other way when they fail to provide the sewerage and sanitation systems, and extend their contracts even though the expiry is so far away? Are we going to stand by and allow this massive duping of the Filipino people?
“Beware the fury of a patient man” as John Dryden says. In this case, beware that of a patient woman! These onerous contracts have been the subject of my own research and numerous calls for investigations close to a decade ago! I am truly thankful that today, President Duterte himself has seen this issue and has not only pledged to act accordingly but will hold these companies accountable. Thank you Mr. President for acknowledging that these widespread actions can no longer be tolerated!
Now I call on my fellow legislators here in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, let us expose these actions for what they are… a widespread swindling of the Filipino people and its government. Let us all unite and act for the benefit of our people, our constituents who elected us to serve!
Allow me to leave you with these words of Anatole France “justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctioned.” Let us all act to correct these injustices of the past once and for all!
Thank you and may God continue to bless the Philippines and the Filipino people!
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