The Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) is expected to announce on Thursday the new water rates in accordance with its concession agreements with the Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc., which calls for a review for water rate rebasing every five years.
This rate rebasing agreement gives the water concessionaires the opportunity to keep up with the market, and to provide and secure a sustainable supply of safe and potable water to its growing number of consumers, both present and the future.
With the pending announcement, one can’t help but hope that the board of MWSS would carefully consider all factors when making the decision – that they disregard personal interests and take public interest into greater consideration.
We no longer want to relive the horrors of the past, circa 1990s, when the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) did not exist yet.
At that time, Filipinos experienced poor service and water supply. Water availability only lasted for 16 hours/day on the average, with additional problems such as widespread meter tampering and illegal connections. In the East Zone of Metro Manila alone, only 67 percent of the 3.1 million customers had piped water and only 26 percent had 24/7 water availability.
Then came the PPP, formed via Republic Act 8041 (or The National Water Crisis Act of 1995) and implemented via Executive Order no. 311 in 1996. This gave Filipinos hope for better infrastructure. Water and wastewater services improved, with 24/7 supply of safe and potable water, that even the poor households had access to – the poor households that once relied on 20 times more expensive vended water. To boot, there was almost a 99-percent water coverage within the concessionaires’ distribution network.
Now, consider the numbers. Over six million people will be affected by the rate rebasing decision. Any investments by the water concessionaires will be impacted by the new rates. West zone concessionaire Maynilad has prepared a program for the construction of sewage treatment facilities that will cost P132 billion until 2037, of which about P30 billion will be spent this year. Manila Water likewise plans to spend billions of pesos moving forward. But if they are not allowed to recover their costs, any businessman in his right mind will have to think twice.
The MWSS board may need to refresh its memory so that it may be able to come up with a fair decision, one that will not prejudice those whom it really serves – the Filipino people.
Dangerous state of things
A member of the House of Representatives has called for an investigation into the state of affairs of stem cell therapy in the country.
In a resolution, Rep. Doy Leachon has asked the Professional Regulation Commission, the Professional Regulatory Board of Medicine, the Department of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration to effectively regulate the practice of stem cell therapy.
PRC and the Professional Regulatory Board of Medicine have issued a position paper that emphasizes on the requirement for foreign medical practitioners to obtain special temporary permits to practice medicine in the country.
The DOH has come up with rules for the accreditation of health facilities offering human stem cell and cell-based or cellular therapies in the country, while the FDA has stated that stem cell preparations require FDA approval.
But even with these rules and guidelines in place, Leachon believes that more needs to be done.
He noted that the officers and members of the Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine (PSSCM) have been misrepresenting themselves as experts and specialists in stem cell therapy without the necessary education, training, and certification in the field, with the officers appending the title “Fellow, PSSCM†after their names.
Medical doctors know what this means.
The Philippine Medical Association, the umbrella organization of component, affiliate, and specialty societies in the more established and recognized branches of medicine, has not officially recognized PSSCM as to put the latter in the same league as the Philippine College of Surgeons, Philippine College of Physicians, Philippine Pediatric Society, Philippine Society of Anesthesiologists, Philippine Obstetrical ang Gynecological Society, to name a few.
The term “fellow†is appended to the name of a medical doctor only after passing certain requirements.
The Philippine College of Physicians for instance awards the title of Diplomate in Internal Medicine to an internist who has fulfilled all the requirements set by the Philippine Specialty Board of Internal Medicine which administers the certifying examinations annually. Meanwhile, the title of Fellow is awarded to a Diplomate in Internal Medicine who has fulfilled the requirements for membership as Fellow in the PCP. Thus, an internist who has satisfactorily passed and fulfilled the requirements of the PCP and having been certified as such, may carry the title Diplomate in Internal Medicine and Fellow of the PCP (FPCP).
Now how on earth were the officers of PSSCM able to legitimately secure their fellowships in stem cell therapy? Are they self-appointed experts in a field that is still basically in the experimental and investigative stage or more precisely “under clinical evaluation and study.â€
Officers of PSSCM are past presidents of PMA. The spokesperson and an officer of PSSCM is no less than Dr. Leo Olarte, president of PMA. Clearly, a conflict of interest, according to Leachon.
We are not concerned about those who have million of pesos to throw away for stem cell therapy in the hope of regaining their youthful vigor and vitality. But we are concerned about very sick people who pin their hopes on stem cell therapy, selling their property just to raise the huge amount that their therapist requires, only to find out that it doesn’t work. Worse, the therapy made their condition worse.
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