Lawmaker slams water concessionaires for ‘widespread swindling’

In a privilege speech, Bagong Henerasyon Party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera accused that the two water contracts contain several provisions of “illegalities and excessive misinterpretations” that are detrimental to the public. (File photo: BH Bernadette Herrera-Dy/Facebook)

MANILA – A member of the House of Representatives on Monday slammed the alleged “illegal” provisions of the water concession agreements with Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water as “widespread swindling” of the Filipino people and its government.

In a privilege speech, Bagong Henerasyon Party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera accused that the two water contracts contain several provisions of “illegalities and excessive misinterpretations” that are detrimental to the public.

“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,” Herrera said.

“It is high time that we truly enforce accountability to those responsible for defrauding the consumers for the benefit of private interests!” she added.

Herrera said considering the concessionaires as “mere agents” of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) is a “farce”, stressing that these companies are public utilities.

“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,” Herrera said.

Furthermore, Herrera noted that another misinterpretation of the water contracts allowed the concessionaires to collect fees via the water tariff capital investment plans and programs that have not yet been implemented or have already been abandoned.

The lawmaker revealed that the water companies were allowed to bill consumers for projects, such as the Wawa Dam Project (PHP 732 million); Laguna Lake Project (PHP 100 million); Laiban Dam Project (PHP 45.3 billion); Pinugay Sewerage Treatment Project (PHP600 million and overpriced); Angat Water Reliability Projects (PHP 5.4 billion); and Earthquake Contingency Project (PHP 4.130 billion).

She noted that for these six projects alone, a total of PHP56.262 billion have been billed in advance from the consumers.

“I ask, where are these projects today? Why is it that the benefit from these hasn’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?” she said.

Herrera argued that these companies also failed to keep their end of the bargain stipulated in the concession agreements 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 (Department of Public Works and Highways),” she said.

“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,” she added.

She also highlighted the move of the MWSS in 2014 to extend the agreements by an additional 15 years to expire in 2037.

“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?” she said.

“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,” she added.

On Thursday, President Rodrigo Duterte said that the owners of the two water concessionaires allegedly have committed “economic plunder” by making the government pay them billions of pesos for damages.

Duterte lashed out anew over the deals made between state regulator Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and the two water concessionaires in 1997, which were disadvantageous to the government and the public.

He further stressed that the Philippines “lost” its sovereignty when the government entered into alleged onerous water concession agreements with these companies.

“Alam mo ‘yung contracts, ‘pag nabasa mo (You know, if you read the contracts, if you read them), our country surrendered everything to Manila Water and Maynilad. Everything including the sovereignty,” Duterte said in a situation briefing he presided over in Legazpi City.

“We have lost sovereignty. We bargained it away,” he added.