Too much

Residents of BF Homes Almanza in Las Piñas have been complaining to the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) about the recent increase in water rates by the Philippine Waterworks & Construction Corp. (PWCC) to no avail.

The new rates were implemented on the basis of a memorandum of agreement between PWCC and the First BF Homes Association, Inc. (FBHAI), the subdivision’s homeowners association and are significantly higher than those being charged by Pilar Waterworks Corporation (PWC) another Aguirre-owned water firm distributing water in nearby Pilar Village also in Las Piñas City.

For so many years, PWCC did not make any investments to dig new deepwells due to lack of money. In Oct., 2002 PWCC asked BF Homes Almanza homeowners to advance P5,000 each to raise capital to fund the digging of a new deepwell. About 80 homeowners raised P400,000 which PWCC would amortize over a 20 month period by deducting P250 per month from water billings.

Some homeowners doubt the reasons why FBHAI agreed to the rate increase without first securing the approval of majority of the homeowners. They said that some FBHAI officers sit on the PWCC board and receive allowances, which make for a "conflict of interest" situation.

Many homeowners agreed to a reasonable increase in rates equivalent to charges in Pilar Village to provide economic viability to PWCC to ensure sustained water supply of potable water, but they sense that PWCC may have taken advantage of a water shortage of so many years to raise water rates after asking homeowners to advance funds for a capital investment that should have been of their (PWCC) undertaking as a responsible franchise holder.

Letters

Here’s a recent e-mail from former First Pacific general counsel Ronald Brown:

"You have renewed my faith in the profession of journalism, in Manila.

All that anyone wishes to have is a "fair" presentation of each side of a story. It is no secret that Manny (Pangilinan) and I did not exactly "get along" with one another, the past couple of years.

Nonetheless, I always have and always will consider him to be one of the most intelligent and sharpest business minds I’ve known. That was my biggest reason for being so critical of him, lately – I simply felt that he had allowed his "personal agenda" to return to Manila, triumphantly successful, to cloud his responsibilities to his public shareholders at First Pacific.

A difference of opinion. Nothing more or less. I do wish him well, in his efforts to rejuvenate First Pacific and to continue the recent successes at PLDT. Certainly, our mutual agreement to eliminate any continuing source of internal management friction at First Pacific is a step in the right direction, as it permits management to focus upon the shareholders and not upon one another." 

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