MCWD workers see Ayala behind privatization plan

Employees of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District believe capitalists, like Ayala, are behind the recent move seeking to privatize local water districts.

MCWD Employees Union said Ayala, which is now aggressively investing into water business, has seemed lied low on their proposed Carmen Bulk Water Project because it is pushing for the approval of Senate Bill No. 2595 and House Bill 6076, which President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo certified as urgent bills in February.

MEU claimed that these bills are designed to facilitate the entry of private interests into the Local Water Utilities Administration and privatization of the water districts. With this, the group added that these proposed laws would lay the groundwork for accelerated assault upon the security of tenure of the civil servants and the union security of its certified bargaining representatives.

The group said that the two bills increased the LWUA’s authorized capital stock from P2.5 billion to P50 billion, which gives more legroom for private investors to get into the action. 

Victor Chiong, MEU president, said Manila Water, Ayala’s subsidiary that took over Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, one of the oldest water providers in Asia, is now eyeing other ways to invest in the water sector after the MCWD decided to reject its proposed Carmen Bulk Water project.

 Chiong, who also leads the Alliance of Government Workers in the Water Sector, said they fear that with the privatization of the water districts, consumers will be affected because water rates will go up and employees of the water districts will lose their jobs like what happened after the privatization of MWSS.

 He said after Ayala took over MWSS in 1997, hundreds of employees of the old MWSS were terminated and many are still in peril of losing their jobs unless they accept the management’s offer for them to become contractual employees.

Last Friday, members of MEU and their supporters held a protest rally in front of the MCWD building to show their opposition to S.B. 2595 and H.B. 6076.

Chiong said they also sought the help of other water districts in the country. Tomorrow, he added, they would submit their position paper to the Congress showing their opposition to the passage of the two bills.

“We are asking for the protection of workers and the consumers who would shoulder the burden of high water rates. Surely, there would be increase in water rates because private sectors are only after the profit,” Chiong said. — Wenna A. Berondo/MEEV