TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — The Provincial Board of Bohol approved a resolution asking the Bohol Water Utilities Inc (BWUI) to spread out the term of payments for unbilled differentials of water bills for consumers in the city.
The approval came after PB Member Venzencio Arcamo, in a privilege speech, rallied his colleagues to convince BWUI to extend the payment terms and ease the burden of consumers who are already saddled with high power rates.
Arcamo proposed to the BWUI that those who consumed water below 30 cubic meters/month be required to pay the unbilled amount within 60 months or five years, and those with 30-plus cu.m. of consumption to 48 months or four years.
The BWUI, in its earlier resolution, announced that "it shall collect the unbilled differentials of the rate increase approved by NWRB (National Water Regulatory Board) covering the months of November 2006 up to June 10, 2010."
It added that, "At the very least, the total of the unbilled amount of differentials shall be paid equally within 18 months and with options to pay it for shorter periods for some discounts."
NWRB has approved the application for water rates increase applied by BWUI based on its decision dated Sept. 20, 2006 despite opposition filed by the city government, one of the oppositors.
The city government, in its petition filed against BWUI with the NWRB recently, alleged that BWUI's move of hiking water rates is "unjust, confiscatory and unconscionable."
The unbilled differentials that represent the uncollected water rate hike covered the period November 2006 up to June 2011, "which were not collected during the pendency of the injunction case filed by the city government of Tagbilaran with the Regional Trial Court," said the city's petition.
For instance, a water billing of P228.75, payable for the period Oct. 20-Nov.20, has been bloated to P660.83 because of the unbilled differential of P432.08.
The PB's move, however, did not urge the province's representative to the BWUI board of directors to make representation for the extension of the payment terms, nor did it show interest in questioning the legality of such unbilled water bills.
The provincial government is partly owner, with 30 percent stakes, of the BWUI after the sale of the former Provincial Public Utilities Department to the Salcon Group of Companies during the time of then governor, now congressman, Rene Relampagos. - THE FREEMAN