Lawmaker: No reason for water rates to go up

MANILA, Philippines - There is no reason for the two water concessionaires in Metro Manila to increase their rates this month, Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy said yesterday.

She said the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System Regulatory Office (MWSS-RO) should not allow Maynilad Water Services and Manila Water Corp. to increase rates.

She said she would go to court to stop any rate adjustment.

Herrera-Dy was reacting to the reported plan of the two concessionaires to increase their fees at the start of 2011.

Instead of adjusting rates, the two companies should refund about P1 billion they collected from customers for water supply and sewerage improvement projects that have not been undertaken, she said.

“I believe that the government should not allow any increase until the issue on unjustified and unconscionable water charges is resolved, together with the question on the excessive profits of the concessionaires,” she said.

Since the concessions are considered public utilities, the two companies given the privilege to run them are subject to the net profit cap set by law, she said.

She added that appropriate committees of the House of Representatives are now looking into these issues.

She noted that Manila Water has reported net earnings amounting to P3 billion as of last September. The amount was 31 percent higher than the company’s P2.273-billion full-year net profit in 2009.

Herrera-Dy has repeated President Aquino’s accusation that members of the MWSS board of trustees and company officers have been receiving excessive compensation.

She said the fat salaries, allowances and bonuses of these officials come from the fees MWSS collects from the two Metro Manila water concessionaires.

“There is an ethical issue involved here, since the regulators are getting paid by the companies they are regulating,” she said.

In a recent hearing by the House good government committee, MWSS officer-in-charge Macra Cruz admitted that they continue to receive excessive compensation despite the President’s denunciation of the huge amounts they are getting in his first State of the Nation Address last July.