Mayor Tomas Osmeña is ready to go to court to settle the issue of payment of unpaid water bills with the Metropolitan Cebu Water District.
“If we have to go to court, we will go to court,” Osmeña said, following the disclosure that the city still owes MCWD at least P81.1 million in accumulated unpaid bills since 1975.
The original amount of the unpaid water consumption was P7.9 million but because of the city’s failure to pay, it incurred penalties and surcharges amounting to P81,153,000 after 25 years.
But Osmeña yesterday said the city will not make the payment, especially on penalties and surcharges, because it is restricted by the Commission on Audit. Aside from this, the MCWD also still owes the city government at least P30 million in revenue shares.
“Cebu City is at the short end of the stakes…they didn’t compensate us for the longest time,” Osmeña said.
If an earlier proposal was implemented, the city government would only have paid MCWD some P50 million after both parties suggested to offset the city’s payables with the P31.9 million MCWD owes the city.
The P31.9 million represents the city’s shares of MCWD’s annual gross revenue.
Under the Local Government Code, a local government unit is entitled to 65 percent of one percent of a water district’s gross revenue derived from water sources in the locality while the remaining 35 percent of the one percent goes to the barangays where the water sources are located.
MCWD has wells in 10 barangays in the city, including Banilad, Talamban, Luz, Guadalupe, Lahug, Kalunasan and Capitol Site. The water district also gets water from the dam in Buhisan.
From the time the Local Government Code took effect, the city is entitled to a share of P26,659,081.34 covering the period of 1992 to 2005. Last year, the city had a share of P2,629,009.73 and as of October this year, its share reached P2,580,074, totaling to P31,868,165,.54.
City administrator Francisco Fernandez earlier said the city has always been faithful in paying its debts, thus, the accumulated surcharges might have been the unpaid debt of the previous administrations.
“Penalties become a personal liability of whoever caused the delay of the payment,” Fernandez said. — Joeberth M. Ocao/LPM