Lawmaker asks COA to stop water rate hikes

MANILA, Philippines - A lawmaker has petitioned the Commission on Audit (COA) to issue a status quo ante order to prevent the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and its two water concessionaires from imposing “unfair and unwarranted” water rate hikes this month.

In an urgent request submitted to COA chair Ma. Gracia Pulido Tan and key officials of the audit agency, Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy said the issuance of a status quo ante order against the water distributors will stop them from increasing water rates.

Herrera-Dy has been opposing the rate adjustments, which she said are set to be implemented starting this month despite the absence of a public hearing.

If water service cost increases have already been imposed, she said the COA must “restore and maintain the situation prior to such rate hike.”

“In the exercise of its constitutionally reposed quasi-judicial powers and omnibus auditing powers the (COA) may issue a status quo or status quo ante order ex parte, requiring no prior hearing and notice pursuant to administrative due process doctrine and case law,” Herrera-Dy said.

In response to her appeal last September, the state audit agency has initiated an omnibus audit of the water concession system being carried out by the MWSS, the MWSS-Regulatory Office and the two private concessionaires – Maynilad Water Services Inc. and the Manila Water Co.

She said the subject of the call for omnibus audit are the allegedly serious irregularities in the implementation of the concession agreement between MWSS and the two private water firms that have led to the imposition of excessive water rates and “illegal, excessive, extravagant” public expenditures and use of government property.

Pulido-Tan referred Herrera-Dy’s request to COA Commissioner Heidi Mendoza, who assigned the case to Directors Divinia Alagon and Leonor Boado.

Shortly after Maynilad and Manila Water announced in December their planned adjustment of water rates, Herrera-Dy sent the urgent letter request for a status quo ante order.

She cited the Administrative Code of 1987 that requires “in no uncertain terms” public participation in the fixing of rates. The provisions of the Code apply to the MWSS and its own concessionaire system, including the two water firms, she said.

In her letter, she said the MWSS’s bases and approval for the tariff adjustments in favor of the MWSS concessionaires are “illegal, irregular, excessive, or unconscionable, or is grossly disadvantageous to the public-at-large.”

“Conflicts of interest in the MWSS concessionaire system exist for the reason that there are interlocking directors and executive officers between and among the MWSS, the concessionaires and their successors-in-interest, which conflict of interest resulted to the irregular and unconscionable transactions,” Herrera-Dy said.