Waterless in Parañaque

Parañaque sits between Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay, and more than a dozen rivers and creeks run through it. Yet for as long as residents can remember, the city has always been waterless. Only in recent years was Maynilad Water Services Inc., the private waterworks concessionaire, able to revive the pipelines into half the population. But the other half – 53,000 households or a quarter of a million people – still has no water connection. From half a century of dryness has evolved the so-called "water sharks".

The rare predatory species, found only in Parañaque, truck in water for P185-190 per 500-gallon residential tank. Maynilad Water Services Inc., the private waterworks concessionaire that is supposed to connect half the metropolis, sells for only P33. Residents are forced to buy from water sharks at a six-fold premium because that is the only way they can survive. Hauling in one’s own water supply would take half a day and untold costs, so a household might as well buy from the ration trucks. Besides, the water sharks are officially recognized by subdivision officers, and thus are the only ones allowed entry – at a rate of up to P6,000 per truck per year.

Ugly fights have erupted over such "entrance fees". Residents accuse their own homeowner association heads of succumbing to the water sharks. Some suspect the P6,000 is the official receipted price, but much more may be changing hands for yearly accreditations. Others circulate scandal sheets claiming that their officers are the very operators of the water trucks, and of harassing Maynilad from laying pipes in their gated enclaves. Homeowner union leaders have been lumped together with city hall officials as colluders. Most of the claims are unsubstantiated. But if there’s any collusion anywhere, it can be seen from the seemingly cartelized pricing per 500-gallon tank.

At any rate, Parañaque residents pay hundreds of millions of pesos a year in overpriced water. And the most vocal of late are from BF Homes Subdivision, for good reason. BF Homes consists of 10,000 households, and is a part of Barangay BF that in turn has 17,000 homes. The barangay is the largest of Parañaque’s 16, yet is the only one without Maynilad connection. Residents in upper-middle class BF Homes alone spend P40 million a month on rationed water. Almost P32 million of that amount is the price difference between Maynilad and rationed water.

The only way to kill the water sharks is to drown them in Maynilad water. But that is not about to happen soon. Pressure from faraway Balara filters in Quezon City is insufficient to gush water all the way to Parañaque. City officials swear to have no immediate solutions. They claim to depend only on a national government plan to filter water from Laguna de Bay into potable tap. The earliest that can happen, though, is five years, and not even in Parañaque but in its similarly thirsty neighbor-city of Muntinlupa.

Yet there is a quick remedy. Maynilad can send in its own trucks to waterless zones, and sell at slightly higher rates than its piped water to cover the cost of hauling. Residents say the Maynilad rations would still be a cheaper one-fifth of the water sharks’. If quarters will resist that, then Parañaque folk may be able to prove who among their subdivision officers and city hall officials are the water sharks after all.

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Coincidentally with my piece on the huge number of colleges in the Philippines (Gotcha, 30 Oct. 2006) came out the annual ranking of the Top 200 Universities in the World. Not one of RP’s 1,647 higher learning institutions made it to that esteemed list. But four landed in the secondary lineup of 201-520 good universities. (See www.topuniversities.com.)

The University of the Philippines tied with world counterparts in 299th-302nd place. De La Salle University tied in 392nd-394th. Ateneo de Manila University tied in 484th-488th. University of Santo Tomas was 500th.

Ranked among only Asian universities, UP was No. 44, De La Salle tied at No. 59, Ateneo tied at No. 80, and UST was No. 85.

These were improvements from 2000, the last year when Asiaweek magazine ranked the continent’s top universities. UP was then only No. 48, which means an improvement by four slots. De La Salle’s ranking also improved from No. 71 to No. 59. Ateneo slipped from No. 72 then to No. 80 today. Also UST, from No. 78 then to No. 85 today. (Correction to my piece last Monday, four RP universities, not only three, made it twice to the Asiaweek list; the fourth being UST.)

That four Philippine universities are mentioned with the world’s Top 500 and Asia’s Top 100 is small consolation. For, 1,643 others did not rate at all. A handfull of them may be striving to make it to the prestigious listings, as shown by the quality of graduates they churn out, but the majority can only be diploma mills that capitalize on the dream of college education as the way out of poverty.

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Not a few overseas Filipinos reacted to that piece on 1,647 colleges by citing the education systems in their host-developed countries. A common thread seemed to be in college preparation for professional licensure exams.

In the Philippines, universities suck in as many students as are willing to pay tuition, then send them out after four or so years to be tested. Newspapers publish the names of the exam passers, and a hullabaloo is made of the Top 10. Often students find out too late that they’re not cut up for college, not with the way they were ill-trained in public elementary and high schools.

In countries like Australia, it’s the other way around. High school students are tested for aptitude. The newspapers run the names of the passers, who then choose college courses from how they fared in the test subjects. The highest 10 percent would enroll in tough courses like medicine and high engineering. Those who flunk learn early enough that vocation school is best for them.

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