Tempers rise as water crisis hits Iloilo

Even as political tempers rose in Bacolod, showers kept pouring over Negros Occidental and cloud-seeding contributed to the rains.

Rep. Monico Puentevella yesterday hit back at City Mayor Evelio Leonardia and especially city legal officer Allan Zamora.

In Iloilo City, however, the main issue was inadequate supply of water for the city’s concessionaires who needed the water most.

This, after Iloilo consumers earlier denounced the Iloilo City power firm for its inadequate and undependable supply of power. It reached a point where the city’s businessmen protested against the Iloilo Power Company.

Post that criticism against the power firm, the consumers this time focused their ire on the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD).

The main source of water supply for Iloilo City comes from surface water, reinforced by underground water, from the Maasin watershed.

While it normally provides Iloilo City consumers some 40,655 cubic meters per day, the watershed is now experiencing very low water reserve.

According to MIWD interim general manager Edwin Reyes, the MIWD can provide only 44,105.38 CMD daily or a deficit of 3,450 CMD.

Leakages and illegal connections and deteriorating pipelines reportedly contribute to the 37 percent water losses, according to the MIWD.

Besides, according to MIWD board director Timoteo Roman, the MIWD needs P800 million to rehabilitate its facilities. The reason: it also plans to establish additional transmission pipes and drill more wells in the hope that this could address the water shortage in all areas that it serves.

Unless the concessionaries cooperate by conserving water, Villaroman said they would not have water to consume by 2010.

Incidentally, the MIWD is expected to complete by May its P207-million rehabilitation project on the entire piping system of the water district.

Irene Ong, president of the Association of Barangay Captains of the city proper, said the rehabilitation of the pipelines is superfluous if there is no water flowing. "They should address the present problem of water scarcity first," was her point.

For the moment, the City of Iloilo, which is hosting the Private Schools Interscholastic Athletic Meet, has deployed firetrucks to supply water to the different billeting areas of the more than 3,000 athletes now in Iloilo.

Last Monday, regional director Larry Nacionalies of the agriculture department was asked by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to allocate funds for cloud-seeding operations in Panay.

In Negros Occidental, Gov. Joseph Marañon has already ordered cloud-seeding to start. This would augment the April showers in Negros Occidental towns in the past two days.

Puentevella’s counter-attacks

Rep. Monico Puentevella (Bacolod City) yesterday came out with strong counter-punches against City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, charging that while ticket barkers were accusing him of overpricing computers and components procured for high schools by the education department, the city government also paid P500,000 each for 10 computers it bought through negotiated purchase last Feb. 6.

Puentevella presented to local mediamen the documents showing that the city officials might have committed violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act when the mayor signed the purchase order with a non-existent Bacolod outlet of Filtra.

The city official’s alleged "bearers" have gone to town accusing the lawmaker of overpricing his procurement of the multimedia educational machines despite the fact that Department of Education regional director Vicente Tirol admitted that it was his office that purchased the computer packages, which each reportedly cost P400,000.

But in the case of the Bacolod purchase, the lawmaker pointed out that only computers were bought, 10 units of which are now being used by the city government and never distributed to schools.

But the congressman pointed out that these were bought from Filtra Bacolod. "And you can consult the directory, there is no such office here in Bacolod," he added.

But the more strident strike by the lawmaker and members of the Progress team was the arrest of a teenager and a 29-year-old for violation of Comelec Resolution No. 7764 and City Ordinance 358.

The two were reportedly arrested by a group of concerned citizens led by Francisco Hiceta Jr. near the Centroplex Mall.

The two were allegedly distributing a "black propaganda" tabloid bearing the headline "The Truth Behind the Lies."

It turned out, according to the lawmaker, the four who arrested the teenager and his adult companion were office personnel of the city legal office.

The two were reportedly turned over to Bac-Up One. Later, with the evidence confiscated from them, according to the police investigator, they turned over the two to the Commission on Elections’ city office. The latter, after examining the tabloid, said the two arrested did not commit any violation of Comelec rules and directed that they be released.

However, when the boy returned to the Bacup station, some 20 minutes later, other "black propaganda" materials other than the bundle of tabloids originally seized along with a knife, turned up.

This was confirmed by the investigator who, interviewed over TV, admitted that he saw "new evidence" only 20 minutes later after the return of the two suspects for booking by the Bacup.

The mother of the boy also testified that she was brought to Zamora’s office where she saw Zamora, Vice Mayor Renecito Novero, and several others drinking brandy inside the city legal office Tuesday night.

Zamora purportedly asked her to convince her son to acknowledge that Puentevella and former Mayor Joy Valdez hired him to distribute the black propaganda materials to city residents.

In short, what is happening now is that tempers are rising and underhanded tactics are gaining ground. It is hard that with tempers rising, the weather may gradually cool off by early May before the situation gets out of hand.

Meanwhile, Eric Loretizos, executive secretary of the Bacolod City Southeast Asian Games Committee, surfaced yesterday during the Puentevella press conference. He told me that he has been home since early this month.

And Loretizos told me that he submitted twice the committee’s liquidation report to the city council, the second containing all the original receipts to support the liquidation report.

"I have the certified copies of the originals received by the office of the vice mayor," he added.

"I just wonder why the city officials, who earlier congratulated Basoc for having come up with an impressive liquidation report, are now the ones raising howls about the alleged failure to liquidate expenses," Loretizos said.

ADDENDUM. Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez seems confident that she will win this election and is making sure that her running mate, Libertad Mayor Mary Jean Nicopjar Te, will be elected with her. And so with retired PNP intelligence chief Robert Delfin. The latter is running for congressman against Rep. Exequiel Javier. Former assemblyman Arturo Pacificador and former congressman Jovito Plameras are contesting the re-election with Gov. Perez. But the challengers are also saddled with health problems. But this is one time when Javier seems to have met his match in Gen. Delfin.