Water consortium threatens to seek refund from MCWD

Stateland Inc. will demand for a project development refund of P195 million if the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) officially rejects the consortium’s P2 billion unsolicited bulk water proposal.

In an interview with Manila Water manager for corporate communications and sustainable development, N. Jeric T. Sevilla Jr. he said that the consortium will have to seek for “legal remedies” if ever the proposal will be officially rejected by MCWD.

However, the Ayala-led consortium is still hoping that MCWD will re-examine the proposal and negotiate with Stateland to pursue the project, Sevilla said in an interview.

MCWD officials on their part said it can only afford to pay P100,000 to the Ayala-led consortium for its proposal as well as expenses incurred for water permits.

“The 100 thousand refund is too low. The company has spend even P80 million for water rights alone,” Sevilla said.

Although MCWD has announced several times that it already rejected the consortium’s proposal to provide 40,000 cubic-meter water a day from Carmen to MCWD, Sevilla said the project contract is still considered live and valid, with the absence of official notice for rejection.

“As far as we are concerned the proposal is still on. We have yet to receive formal notice from MCWD,” Sevilla said.

According to Sevilla, last thing they heard from MCWD, was they were informed that the project was ready to go to mediation with the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), however, the story has taken a twist.

“They [MCWD] changed the rule in the middle of the game,” he added.

 “We are asking MCWD to give us a formal communication on the rejection if they no longer want the contract and to refund us of our development cost,” Sevilla said adding that “We are still hoping they [MCWD] would change their mind, but we will see what legal remedies we have.”

In a report, MCWD general manager Armando Paredes said that MCWD Board could not see any point in going to the NWRB considering the vast differences in figures they and Manila Water claim to have.

The project was ready for a price challenge in 2006 when it hit a snag—as Manila Water insisted on getting the refund for its development cost in the event they lost in the price battle.

MCWD along with local government leaders who appoint MCWD board members in Cebu opposed the claim.

In the event that MCWD will have to snub the proposal, Sevilla said the company will have to look for other takers, “the [water] rights are ours. We will have to look for other options and find other takers in other parts of the province.”

 “If MCWD does not want us, there are maybe other interested parties in other parts of Cebu province to partner with us,” he stressed.

Stateland Inc. is a consortium between Ayala Corporation and the Central Equity Ventures Inc., (CEVI).

The unsolicited proposal involves extracting water from the northern town of Carmen, as well as the treatment and delivery of between 40,000 and 60,000 cubic meters of water per day to the distribution network of MCWD.