MWSS execs denounced

Employees of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) Regulatory Office staged a protest rally yesterday in front of its main building to express their dissatisfaction over the continued stay of two deputy administrators.

The protesters, numbering close to 60, denounced the continued stay of Deputy Administrators Elena Alojipan and Virgilio Ocaya at the Regulatory Office.

They assailed Alojipan and Ocaya for beclouding "certain issues" by hurling unfounded charges against Chief Regulator Rex Tantiongco, a press statement said.

In a petition to the MWSS Board of Trustees, the employees urged the board to take action on their plea to have the two deputy administrators removed on charges of inefficiency, insubordination, favoritism, and harassment.

The statement said Alojipan and Ocaya have been insisting that they cannot be removed from office by the Board of Trustees, and that only a body of International Arbitrators has the power to do so. Alojipan and Ocaya denounced Tantiongo for allegedly railroading the approval of a petition for rate increase made by Maynilad Water Services, the Lopez-owned water company handling the MWSS’ west zone; and for doing things on his own without consulting other regulators. – Matthew Estabillo