To check on revenue sharing Talisay to review MCWD contract

CEBU, Philippines - Talisay City is mulling to review a decade-old agreement it entered with Metropolitan Cebu Water District to determine whether the sharing in revenues is just and ensure that stipulations are followed.

Members of the Talisay City Council approved a Committee on Labor, Trade and Industry recommendation asking the City Legal Office to review the memorandum of agreement that was signed on August 2, 1994.

City Councilor Aldin Diaz, committee chairman, said he is inviting a representative from MCWD to next week's session in order to answer queries, particularly on the sharing of revenues.

"The revenue shared to the City of Talisay by MCWD needs to be clarified," Diaz said, adding that it is necessary to ascertain that the city government has benefitted from the projects that MCWD had done in the city.

The MOA was entered into when the city was still a municipality and was signed by then mayor Dehlia Tiu and Alfonso Albaño, then chairman of the MCWD board.

According to Diaz, the agreement needs to be re-examined because there is no showing that it has been ratified by the council after its execution.

Diaz also recommended there will be an inventory to determine the number of wells that have been drilled and the number of pumping stations that have been constructed within the perimeter of Jaclupan Valley.     

Under the MOA, the MCWD is to drill 19 wells and construct 19 pumping stations.

"There is a need to discern whether the MCWD has followed the specifications and conditions in the MOA," Diaz said in his report.

Not in the provision in the MOA is the limit on the volume of water to be extracted by MCWD per day or per month.

There is also no provision as to the joint reading of the water meter installed at the MCWD pumping stations in order to determine the volume of the water extracted by MCWD.

No water meter has been installed at the MCWD pumping stations for the use of the city in reading and determining the volume of the water extracted.

City Councilor Antonio D. Bacaltos Jr., chairman of the Agriculture and Aquatic Resources Committee, said there is a paramount need to find out whether all provisions stipulated in the MOA are being followed strictly by both parties.

Bacaltos pointed out that many provisions stipulated in the MOA are being ignored.

Bacaltos also said then former city legal officer Owen Algoso had initially reviewed the MOA and had come out with a report on June 3, 2009.

At present, the reading of the water meter at the pumping stations is done by MCWD alone without the presence of any representative from the City of Talisay.

The city has no way of knowing the exact amount of water being extracted by MCWD, Bacaltos added.

MCWD Public Affairs Department Manager Charmaine Rodriguez-Kara confirmed they will attend the City Council's next session.