{"id":239263,"date":"2019-12-06T02:07:20","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T07:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=239263"},"modified":"2019-12-06T02:07:20","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T07:07:20","slug":"ph-sovereignty-was-lost-in-onerous-water-deals-prrd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/12\/06\/ph-sovereignty-was-lost-in-onerous-water-deals-prrd\/","title":{"rendered":"PH sovereignty was lost in \u2018onerous\u2019 water deals: PRRD"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a situation briefing on the effects of Typhoon Tisoy at the Legazpi City Convention Center on December 5, 2019. (Photo: Alfred Frias\/PCOO<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The Philippines \u201clost\u201d its sovereignty when the government entered into alleged onerous water concession agreements with Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Co., President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlam mo ‘yung<\/em>\u00a0contracts,\u00a0‘pag nabasa mo<\/em>\u00a0(You know the contracts, if you read them), our country surrendered everything to Manila Water and Maynilad. Everything including the sovereignty,\u201d Duterte said in a situation briefing he presided over in Legazpi City.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have lost the sovereignty. We bargained it away,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The President said that the owners of the two water concessionaires allegedly have committed \u201ceconomic plunder\u201d by making the government pay them billions of pesos for damages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a classic case of economic plunder.\u00a0Wala lang nakasilip nito e<\/em>\u00a0(Nobody noticed it),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNilaro ninyo \u2018yung Pilipino sa pera. Sabi ko<\/em>\u00a0(You played Filipinos with money. I said), I will pursue this. If this is the only thing that I can achieve in this — in my administration,\u00a0ito na lang. Bibirahin ko talaga<\/em>\u00a0(just this. I will run after them) economic plunder,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He also slammed the owners for making consumers shoulder the corporate income tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen\u00a0\u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0income tax\u00a0nila. P***** i** nila tayo ang magbayad<\/em>\u00a0(we have to pay for it),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is money of the entire Republic of the Philippines.\u00a0Kaya sila ang<\/em>\u00a0constituents\u00a0ko. Pera ng gobyerno \u2018yang ibinayad namin sa<\/em>\u00a0income tax\u00a0ninyo<\/em>\u00a0(They are my constituents. It\u2019s government money that was used to pay for your income tax),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Non-bailable offense<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in Singapore has ordered the government to pay Maynilad about PHP3.6 billion in damages for the company\u2019s losses over the refusal to implement tariff adjustment for 2013 to 2017.<\/p>\n

Recently, the court also asked the government to pay PHP7.4 billion to the Ayala-Manila Water as compensation for losses and damages from delayed water rate increases since 2015.<\/p>\n

Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan\u2019s Metro Pacific Investments Corporation owns a controlling stake in Maynilad while Manila Water is a subsidiary of Ayala Corporation.<\/p>\n

Because of the alleged irregular water concession agreements, Duterte reminded the Ayalas in particular that plunder is a non-bailable offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll file plunder.\u00a0Ang<\/em>\u00a0plunder,\u00a0\u2018adre,<\/em>\u00a0Mr. Ayala, no bail\u00a0\u2018yan. Gusto makita na bilyonaryo na makulong<\/em>\u00a0(Plunder has no bail. I want to see a billionaire jailed),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, a review conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) showed the water contracts were \u201conerous and disadvantageous to the people, relative the terms or periods, government non-interference, as well as concessionaire indemnification for losses\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since then, the President has directed the DOJ and the Office of the Solicitor General to draft a new water concession contract that is \u201cfavorable to the State and the Filipino people\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also asked them to file economic sabotage cases against all those involved in the agreements.<\/p>\n

Drilon\u2019s text message<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duterte, meanwhile, bared that Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has denied involvement in the crafting of the irregular water contracts.<\/p>\n

Drilon earlier warned the President against reviewing the contracts because the government will end up paying billions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Drilon) sent a text to Bingbong (Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea),\u00a0binasa niya kagabi sa akin<\/em>\u00a0(he read it to me last night),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSabi niya doon, \u2018Sabihin mo kay Rody wala na ako sa\u00a0<\/em>ACCRA\u00a0‘yung panahon na’ yun.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0(He said,\u2018Tell Rody that I was no longer with ACCRA during that time.\u2019),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, clarified that he did not say that ACCRA, a law firm, was involved in the deals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The Philippines \u201clost\u201d its sovereignty when the government entered into alleged onerous water concession agreements with Maynilad Water Services …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":239269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239273,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239263\/revisions\/239273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}