MCWD told - Make sure case won't hamper service

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella has directed the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) Board to make sure that its services will not be hampered by the ongoing court case over the termination of former members of its Board of Directors.

The mayor believes, though, that the case will not affect the water service in the city.

“I don't think so. And that is a challenge to the board, to Joey Daluz, so he has to shape up, especially with these issues that happened,” said Labella.

Jose “Joey” Daluz is the MCWD chairman.

In a previous interview, Daluz said the court battle will not affect MCWD’s services.

Arguing that the MCWD Board members are “strangers to the case,” Daluz said they will not yield to the court’s 20-day temporary restraining order against the decision of Labella to terminate three of the Board’s members.

“As of now, we will not yield. This is not a defiance to the court order because the court did not, in the first place, have jurisdiction on us,” Daluz said earlier.

Daluz said their lawyers found that terminated Board Members Ralph Sevilla, Augustus Pe, and Cecilia Adlawan did not include MCWD as party in the case they filed against Labella and the Local Water Utility Administration (LWUA).

Because of this, the court reportedly cannot compel MCWD to yield to the TRO, which also reinstates Sevilla, Pe, and Adlawan, when “we are not a party to the case because it will lose our Constitutional right of due process to be heard.”

Meanwhile, Atty. Amando Virgil Ligutan, the lawyer of Sevilla, Pe, and Adlawan, said the issue whether the TRO covers the present board has been discussed during the hearing, stating they are covered by the TRO.

On March 18, the Cebu City Legal Office (CLO) has assailed the jurisdiction of the court and sought the inhibition of Judge James Stewart Ramon Himalaloan of Branch 7 of the Regional Trial Court from further hearing the petition for injunction that the three dismissed board members of MCWD filed.

When asked of the possibility of Himalaloan to inhibit, Labella said: “Well, it is up to him (Himalaloan)... I cannot decide for him,” he said.

Aside from Daluz, Labella also appointed to the MCWD Board Francisco Malilong, Jr.; Miguelito Pato; Atty. Manolette Dinsay; and Judelyn Mae Seno. —JMO (FREEMAN)