Golez leads BF homeowners' rally today

MANILA, Philippines - Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez will lead BF Homes residents in a rally today to protest a court order stopping the laying of water pipe lines to their homes.

In a text message, Golez said waterworks of BF Homes Inc. (BFHI) had failed to perform its public service mandate and now wants to benefit from the windfall of water from Maynilad Water Service Inc. (MWSI).

“I will support and join citizens’ move to file in the Supreme Court an administrative case against the judge,” he said.

He has been in close coordination with MWSI president Rogelio Singson and the firm’s Parañaque branch manager, Golez said.

Diana Quiros of United BF Homeowners Association Inc.(UBFHAI), said it is all systems go for the mass action today.

“We want to send a message to the concerned… to finally allow Maynilad Water Services Inc. to address the water supply problem in the city,” she said.

Rally participants will converge in several areas, starting around 7 a.m., before marching to the UBFHAI park on Banzon Street.

BF Homes has more than 10,000 homes spread over 72 gated enclaves, each one with their own homeowners’ association and are members under the umbrella of the UBFHAI. BF Homes, the country’s largest subdivision, cuts across Las Piñas, Parañaque and Muntinlupa.

Meanwhile, a BFHI official said they asked a Las Piñas court to stop MWSI from laying water pipes inside BF Homes because the water firm did not get its permission to deal directly with homeowners. Engineer Fernando Javier, BFHI vice president for production/engineering, said they were surprised when MWSI started laying pipes in the subdivision without their permission.

 “We are the ones originally negotiating with Maynilad,” he said. “We initially agreed that we will source water from them for the benefit of subdivision residents.”

“However, we are also in talks with the National Water Resources Board since they serve as our consultant in terms of the water rate that should be imposed. In the process of consultation, we were surprised that starting December 2008, there were already excavation activities being undertaken by Maynilad in the subdivision though we were not informed about it.”

Javier said BFHI is open to a dialogue with MWSI but that the water firm cannot just take over their water services for free.

BFHI is reportedly owned by businessman-sportsman Albert “Bobby” Aguirre but when The STAR checked with the Securities and Exchange Commission the other day, it learned there was no such company registered with that name.

Initially, MWSI offered to sell water in bulk to BFHI using the water system of its water utility firm, Philippine Waterworks and Construction Corp. (PWCC).

The talks reportedly bogged down after PWCC demanded a lower transfer price and planned to resell the water at a price that would have been much higher than those being paid by residents of neighboring subdivisions.

MWSI rejected the demand.

Mayor Florencio Bernabe then implemented City Council Resolution No. 08-054 authorizing him to exercise police power to allow MWSI to immediately construct a water system in the Subdivision.

However, BFHI was able to secure a temporary restraining order from a judge in Las Piñas.   – Delon Porcalla, Rhodina Villanueva