Aguilar settles BF Homes water row

MANILA, Philippines – Residents of BF Homes Las Piñas will soon have a regular supply of water once Maynilad Water Services Inc. and BF Homes Inc. (BFHI) agree to a settlement, Mayor Vergel Aguilar said yesterday.

Aguilar, who brokered the settlement, said the deal ended several months’ standoff over legal issues surrounding the water firm’s road diggings and pipe-laying activities in the Las Piñas part of BF Homes subdivision.

Aguilar said part of the agreement is for Maynilad to compensate developer BFHI for the right-of-way given the pipe installation activities they are set to undertake in the identified areas.

When The STAR tried to find out how much Maynilad was supposed to pay BFHI, city officials said there was no figure yet.

Residents earlier called on Aguilar to use his police power to facilitate the entry of Maynilad services into the subdivision’s Las Piñas portion.

However, Aguilar rejected the idea, calling it absurd and illogical. He said “it would be foolish for the city government to do something which has already been declared as in violation of the law and of the Constitution… the same case in Parañaque was swiftly struck down by the court as illegal.”

Aguilar pointed out that it is always his desire to facilitate and broker a win-win solution to problems involving the best interest and welfare of the residents.

“I don’t want people to be denied clean water and be burdened by a long court battle, like what happened in BF Parañaque. I share the residents’ dream of having clean water supply denied them for so long,” Aguilar said.

Earlier reports said the city government, through Vice Mayor Henry Medina, ordered Maynilad to suspend pipe-laying activities in a number of streets in BF Homes Las Piñas.

Medina quoted an official of BFHI as saying that these streets were “private properties of the Aguirre family and therefore not part of the BF Homes subdivision, and these are merely access roads that the Aguirre family had allowed the public to use.” Businessman-sportsman Bobby Aguirre is the reported owner of BFHI.

This raised howls of protest from residents, who trooped to the Office of the Mayor to demand a written permit for Maynilad contractors to resume the diggings.

Maynilad earlier completed laying main water lines along El Grande, Tropical Avenue from Palace street to Naga gate, Elizalde Avenue from Rafael Corpuz to Pablo Roman, and Concha Cruz from Elizalde to Alabang-Zapote, before stopping work on the stretch of Palace street from Tropical Avenue to the Southland gate of BF Las Piñas; Moscow street from Tropical Avenue to the Mariposa gate, and Tropical Avenue from Palace Street to Pablo Roman.