• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Bacolod City Water District should avail of and exhaust all legal remedies under the joint venture agreement (JVA) with PrimeWater to protect the rights of consumers, instead of passing it to the city government, the Sangguniang Panlungsod said Dec. 16.
The SP approved the supplemental motion of Councilor Caesar Distrito, who stressed that Baciwa, being the Contract Monitoring Unit (CMU) under the JVA, has the available legal means and all the right to terminate the contact”, if warranted.
“Why is it that Baciwa cannot impose penalties, or use all available means to pressure and file cases against PrimeWater?” Distrito said, following the appearance of the board of directors of the water district, led by chairperson Sonya Verdeflor, at the SP regular session.
He said that the violations cited by the Baciwa Board are all in the JVA. So instead of passing it to the local government unit, or for the city mayor to take action, Baciwa should avail of and exhaust all legal remedies, including the imposition of penalties or going through arbitration.
The Baciwa Board, in Resolution 096-2025, has urged the Bacolod LGU “to issue a show-cause order against Primewater Infrastructure Corporation (PWIC), and to impose the sanction of revocation of their business permit to operate if they cannot justify and fully remedy their various violations”.
But several SP members said the city government is not a party to the contract between Baciwa and PrimeWater.
“Because we are not a party to the contract, we cannot use that to interpret the violations of the terms of agreement in the JVA,” Distrito, a lawyer by profession, stressed.
Among the violations cited by the Baciwa Board in its resolution last week include the failure of PWIC to allot a capital expenditure for five years of P1.684 billion, adding the capex in the last four years was only P132 million.
The non-revenue water (NRW) target by 2025, or Year 5, of the JVA is 25 percent, while actual NRW average, as of September, was 37.24 percent. “PWIC has agreed to ensure 24/7 water supply by the end of Year 2 (or 2022); however, only 51.04 percent of the service area has 24 hours water supply,” the Board said.
It also cited low water pressure and production, as against the target under the JVA.
Verdeflor, meanwhile, said the Board has invited PrimeWater to a committee meeting tomorrow, Dec. 18, to discuss these concerns but has yet to confirm attendance, as of yesterday afternoon. | CGC
