Marcos appoints lawyer as LWUA chief

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos has appointed Jose Moises Salonga as the new Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) chief, Malacañang said yesterday.

In a statement, Presidential Communications Secretary Cheloy Garafil said Salonga was appointed LWUA administrator on Feb. 19.

Salonga replaced Homer Revil, former Masbate vice governor appointed to the LWUA in February last year.

Malacañang has yet to respond to media queries about Marcos’ reasons for replacing Revil.

Salonga finished his economics degree at the Ateneo de Manila University in 1999.

He obtained his law degree from the same university in 2003 and completed his master’s degree in public safety administration at the Philippine Public Safety College in 2017.

The new LWUA chief worked in the anti-illegal drugs special operations task force of the Philippine National Police, the National Power Corp., the Land Bank of the Philippines, First Farmers’ Rural Bank of Batangas Inc., Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp., Office of the Executive Secretary, PNOC Renewables Corp., First Cabanatuan Renewable Ventures Inc., Emergence Management and Consulting Corp. and the Quezon City local government.

Formed through the Provincial Water Utilities Act of 1973, LWUA is a government-owned and controlled corporation with a specialized lending function whose mandate is to promote and oversee the development of water supply systems in cities and municipalities outside Metro Manila.

The law that established LWUA also provided for the creation of water districts in cities and municipalities in the provinces.

On its website, LWUA described itself as “the only lending institution with the financial, technical and institutional development competence to enable a water district’s water supply project to generate return-on-investments.”

It has been funding water supply projects through funds obtained from national government subscriptions, bilateral and multilateral fund sources and internally generated funds and second-generation funds.