BF Homes residents to Aguirre family: Give way to Maynilad

Homeowners from the BF Homes subdivision in Parañaque City are asking the Aguirre family, who own the firm that developed the subdivision, to allow Maynilad Water Services Inc. to supply them with water.

Hernando Juatas, convenor of the Homeowners’ Welfare Advocacy Group (HWAG), said 45 percent of residents in BF Homes have been without potable water for the last 20 years after the subdivision’s developer – Banco Filipino BF Homes Inc., which supplied water through its private reservoir – failed to settle its electric bills. Bobby Aguirre and his family reportedly own this firm.

Juatas said Maynilad is willing to provide water repair services but is hindered by a right-of-way wrangle with the developer.

"The developer has given us several excuses—that their pumps could not draw water from wells anymore, they need to rehabilitate their wells, etc.," he said.

Maynilad said it cannot service the entire subdivision since the developer of BF Homes has refused to give it the right of way.

HWAG led a motorcade rally Saturday to call the government’s attention to their problem concerning the lack of water supply in several areas in their subdivision.

Juatas said 93 motorists cruised the city’s main roads – Aguirre Avenue, Elizalde Avenue, Tropical Avenue and El Grande Street – for one hour, starting at 10:30 a.m.

Juatas said they are asking the national government’s water agencies to take over the subdivision’s water system and give Maynilad the freedom to manage and operate at its own mandated prices.

Earlier, the city government said HWAG should press the developers of BF Homes to allow the homeowners’ associations of each of the 70 zones to negotiate directly with Maynilad.

"The Parañaque City government is willing to assist in these negotiations," City Administrator Noli Aldip said, adding that they already did their part by working with Maynilad to bring water to the subdivision – at least up to the subdivision’s commercial center and some households in Phase I.

Juatas said it was in the 1970s when BF Waterworks, a private company, started delivering water to households in BF Homes through pipelines servicing approximately 60,000 households or 300,000 residents.

"As the years went by, water supply has become scarce until the problem became pronounced in the 1980s," he said, adding that both the residents and the local government have exhausted all possible remedies to address the water crisis in the last 20 years but to no avail.

HWAG earlier appealed to President Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro on two separate occasions to help so that Maynilad will be allowed to conduct repair activities in BF Homes.

Juatas noted that water delivery has become a multi-million peso business in Parañaque.

"Residents of Barangay BF alone, which consists of 16,646 households, spend nearly P400 million yearly as payment to water delivery trucks," he said.

The Aguirre family reportedly own water delivery trucks servicing BF Homes.

HWAG also threatened to campaign against local officials who are seeking re-election but have not shown any concern for the residents of BF Homes.