Stop water hike, Palace asked

MANILA, Philippines - Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy of the party-list group Bagong Henerasyon asked Malacañang yesterday to stop the increase in water rates scheduled for next month.

She said the decision of Maynilad Water Services and Manila Water Corp., the two water service providers in Metro Manila, to increase their respective rates “are unconscionable and unjustified.”

“The government should not allow profit-hungry companies, particularly public service utilities, to impose their will on hapless consumers. Public interest requires the Palace to step in,” she said.

She said the public cannot hope for help and relief from the government regulator, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), since the salaries and allowances of its officials and personnel are paid for by the two service providers.

Herrera-Dy complained that the MWSS did not conduct public consultations before the water rate increase was announced.

“Public consultations have become imperative because the two private water firms have not been able to justify their inability to finish water and sewerage improvement projects that consumers financed through previous hike in water rates,” she said. She said Malacañang has to come to the rescue of consumers, who she said are facing a “double whammy” early next year since electricity rates are also scheduled to go up.

Several petitions are pending with the Energy Regulatory Commission for the grant of a series of increases in the cost of electricity, she said.

She said private electricity distribution companies, which are earning billions in annual profits, are among the petitioners. 

Earlier, Herrera-Dy has asked the Commission on Audit to check the MWSS and its two private concessionaires for “violations of the concession agreements and for illegal, excessive extravagant and unconscionable public expenditures, rate adjustments and use of government property.”

In a letter to COA chair Gracia Pulido-Tan, she said water rates have gone up since 1997.

From P7.21 per cubic meter, Maynilad’s rate has soared to P33.32 at present, while Manila Water’s tariff jumped from P4.02 in 1997 to P30.34 per cubic meter, she said.

She also asked COA to determine the “legal and moral implications of the conflict of interest in the concession system,” since the service providers contribute funds from which MWSS personnel draw their salaries.