Kimberly says water permits legal

Multinational Kimberly-Clark Philippines said yesterday it is considering the transfer of ownership of its water permits to its employees’ cooperative to stop once and for all the controversy surrounding their acquisition.

But the company insisted that it obtained the questioned water permits in a legal manner. Four top Kimberly-Clark executives face charges in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court for allegedly violating the 1976 Water Code of the Philippines in connection with the permits.

Company spokeswoman Digna Santos said, to address the issue of foreign ownership, the company proposed to the NWRB last Feb. 6 to transfer the permits to the employees’ cooperative.

The executives, American national Robert Tober, president and chief executive officer, Marino Abes, corporate secretary, Leonila Alfonso, treasurer, and Cornelio Peralta, former president and current consultant, are accused of passing off the company as Filipino-owned so it could apply for six permits from the National Water Resources Board to extract and use ground water for industrial purposes at its 11-hectare facility in San Pedro, Laguna.

Under Section 14 of Republic Act 1067, "only citizens of the Philippines or corporations 60-percent of whose capital are owned by Filipinos may apply for a water permit and the privilege of appropriating and using water resources."

The same law penalizes misrepresentation of citizenship with a fine of P6,000 to P10,000 or imprisonment of six years and one day to 12 years.
The University of the Philippines (UP)-Likha, an environmental student organization which brought the landmark criminal suit to court, said the corporation is 87-percent owned by Kimberly-Clark, USA, as indicated by records of the corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kimberly-Clark invokes Article 512 of the Civil Code which provides that only the permission of the landowner is required for the use of water in private lands..

The environmental group has argued that provisions on water resources found in the Civil Code have been repealed by the 1976 Water Code and the 1987 Constitution. The Constitution expressly provides in Article XII, section 2 that only Filipino citizens or corporations at least sixty percent of whose capital stock is owned by Filipinos may enter into a joint venture agreement with the government for the use of natural resources.

Kimberly-Clark said the permits were granted by the NRWB only after exhaustive proceedings.

It accused certain "third parties" of allegedly taking an interest in the water rights for their own private benefit.

The company has been doing business here for the last 36 years. It employs more than 900 employees and indirectly provides another 5,000 jobs through its more than 400 suppliers, according to its press statement. A leading manufacturer of bathroom, infant and adult care products, it posted net earnings of P4.8 billion last year. It is an affiliate of the Kimberly-Clark Corp., which has operations in 40 countries and sells products in more than 150 countries. – Romel Bagares