Fighting over control of water in Cebu!

With less than a year to go for the 2007 elections — yes, I’m assuming that there will be elections next May — strangely there has been no political noise in Cebu. The only bickering among politicians these days stem from the flaws of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD). Yes, we’re fighting over water in Cebu because we never cared to seriously solve this problem years ago.

Just a little history. The MCWD came from the old Osmeña Waterworks System (OWS) that serviced Cebu City from the time of Don Sergio Osmeña, which had the Buhisam Dam in Tisa, Labangon constructed to serve some 4,000 cubic meters of water daily. This 90-year-old dam complements MCWD’s 82 groundwater and 15 surface wells. However, because the OWS could not cope up with the population growth of Cebu City, the MCWD was created.

So today, the MCWD is mandated to service not only Cebu City’s water needs, but also the component cities of Metro Cebu and even the towns of Consolacion, Cordova and Compostela. Its daily water production is 139,602 cubic meters serving 83,822 registered water concessionaires. It has a total asset of P2.3 billion, with a net revenue of P600 million last year.

I’m sure you probably have an idea that the entire province of Cebu has only around 3 million people, so you can just imagine that MCWD has barely scratched the surface when it comes to serving the water needs of Cebuanos. So, the question now is, if OWS was replaced by MCWD because it could not cope up with the growth of Cebu, what should we do then with MCWD? That is the question truly begging for an answer.

The bone of contention that has brought serious questions on MCWD is the Carmen Bulk Water Project, the water deal that the Ayala Stateland consortium entered into with MCWD in the past five years to extract water in the northern town of Carmen, some 60 kilometers from Cebu City. But that was at least four years ago. Today, there are many other bidders who want to participate in this water deal but according to the agreement signed by MCWD with the Ayala Stateland consortium, if they lose their bid they want the winning bidder to pay them P200 million in development cost. This is an issue that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is questioning as it is deemed highly onerous.

Cebu Province Consultant Pablo John Garcia is also not convinced as to why the winning bidders should reimburse the Ayala Stateland consortium.

"If in a solicited bid, a bidder is not reimbursed for expenses incurred in the course of making a proposal, why should a bidder in an unsolicited bid be so reimbursed? Why should Ayala Consortium be paid for expenses incurred in making a proposal nobody asked to make?" Garcia asked.

"If MCWD claims that the reimbursement is for "just compensation" for the water rights of Ayala, the latter is not entitled to such because under Section 6 of the Water Code, water rights is a mere privilege grated by the state and is conditioned upon beneficial use. If Ayala loses the bid, then it has no beneficial use of the water rights, and its permit is subject to revocation," he added.

I too have my own questions on this deal. Where did the P200 million come from? An MCWD official said earlier that the development cost has not yet been determined because all expenses for the project are still subject to audit. Now are we seeing some kind of "mind conditioning" here?

Last week officials of the International Finance Corp. (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group that finances water projects, came to Cebu to check out the viability of this water project and naturally everyone for or against the project has sat down with these officials. Because of the potential rift that the Carmen Bulk Water project has caused, the mayors of the northern towns of Cebu province who do not find anything wrong with the MCWD deal with the Ayala Consortium are now questioning why Mayor Osmeña has so much control over MCWD.

Accordingly, Presidential Decree No. 198 provides that the members of the board of a water district are to be appointed by the head of the local government where at least 75 percent of the total active water service connections are located. MCWD figures apparently show that Cebu City comprises only 64 percent of the active service connections. So, these mayors insist that the one who ought to call the shots in MCWD should be the governor of Cebu Province, not Osmeña.

Osmeña, however, merely shrugged his shoulders and dared those who question his authority to go to court. Indeed, if they go to court, it just might take years to resolve the issue. Enter Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, suggesting to the mayors of all the northern towns — from Consolacion all the way to Carmen — to break away from the MCWD and start their own water districts with money that the province of Cebu would provide. If you ask me, this is the better solution because if it is the governor who will call the shots in MCWD, it still can’t solve the present problems of not being able to meet the water needs of Cebuanos! That is a problem that needs a long-term solution.

At this point, allow me to say that we should put on hold this war about water simply because we are hosting the 12th ASEAN Leader’s Summit. Let this be the big issue after our foreign visitors leave, after which we can once more start the water squabble. Right now, I suggest that we focus on the ASEAN Summit. It should also give us enough time to think about the suggestion of Gov. Garcia. That is the soundest suggestion I’ve heard so far.

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San Juan Mayor JV Ejercito was in Cebu last Sunday and hastily called a presscon at the Sacred Heart Center. His mission was to lambast the Arroyo administration as a "government that is only concerned with its image." He promised the squatters to give them permanent homes. As part of the preparations for the ASEAN Summit, Cebu is now conducting a clean-up drive, getting sidewalk vendors off the sidewalks and illegal squatters out.

What Mayor JV doesn’t know is that finally Cebu’s political leaders found the right excuse to rid our sidewalks of those pesky sidewalk vendors who have forced pedestrians to walk along the road. We’ve asked this from our leaders a long time ago, but they didn’t have the political will to do so. What Mayor JV has done is literally interfere with the internal affairs of Cebu. Our message to JV is, do unto others. Surely he wouldn’t want to see Mayor Osmeña talking to the squatters of San Juan and telling them that Mayor Estrada wants them to forever be squatters so they can be used in pro-poor rallies? Knowing Tommy, he just might do that!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns in the Freeman can also be accessed through the Philippine Star website. He also hosts a weekly talk show entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable at 8 p.m. Bobit’s columns can also be accessed at www.shootinginsidecebu.blogspot.com