CLO rebuffs LWUA on MIWD controversy

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

THE Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) has no power to determine the appointing authority of members of the board directors of a water district.

This was the opinion of the Iloilo City Legal Office (ICLO) as regards the latest statement of LWUA chairman Prospero Pichay and LWUA administrator Daniel Landingin on who should appoint the directors of the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD).

Pichay and Landingin earlier claimed that Iloilo Governor Arthur D. Defensor Sr., not Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick E. Mabilog, has the power to appoint future directors of MIWD.

The LWUA officials cited Section 3-B of Presidential Decree 198, the law governing the creation and operation of local water districts, which states that the city mayor can appoint the directors if 75% of the total active service connections of a local water district are within the boundary of a city or municipality.

Otherwise, the appointing authority shall be the governor of the province within which the district is located.

Mabilog has learned of LWUA’s statements in a letter sent by Landingin to his office and MIWD general manager Le Jayme Jalbuena.

In an opinion dated November 2, 2010, Atty. Giovanni Alfonso R. Miraflores of the ICLO said PD 198 and other amendatory laws have “no expressed or implied provision” granting LWUA nor its administrator the power to determine who shall be the appointing authority of the board of directors of a local water district.

“A mere letter addressed to the general manager and not even to the Board of Directors of the MIWD or the City Mayor of Iloilo cannot serve as legal basis for withdrawing the power of appointment being exercised by the Iloilo City Mayor since the time the Metro Iloilo Water District was formed by the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Iloilo City pursuant to PD 198, as amended,” Miraflores said.

The legal opinion added that LWUA has “no power or authority” to direct the MIWD general manager to take steps to ensure the appointment of the new MIWD directors “since this power is vested in the secretary of the local water district and not the general manager” as provided in Sections 9-12 of PD 198.

Mabilog said his office has received the legal opinion which he will use to resist LWUA’s intervention in MIWD affairs.

NOT HAPPY

Gov. Defensor said he is not happy when he learned from Pichay that he has the authority to appoint MIWD directors “because I will be inheriting a lot of problems.”

“I am not interested in that work. I have more work to handle. It will only breed more problems to me,” Defensor said.

Defensor said the issue is who and how can MIWD improve its services, not the appointing authority of the water district.

“The problem is not so much on who will appoint the Board of Directors, what is more important is how MIWD officials could find solution to the lingering water problem.”

The governor said MIWD is in deep trouble as its services are very much below par.

“MIWD is one of the worst water districts in the country. It is reeling with the problem on severely inadequate supply of water which makes their consumers suffer,” he said.

Defensor said the public had enough of the conflict between the MIWD board of directors and management team.

“The people are not interested in the quarrel between the MIWD management and board of directors… They are more interested in seeing an end to the water supply problem,” he said.

Defensor also said that the issue on the appointing authority should be taken up very seriously with the city government, MIWD, and LWUA. “We should study the law first,” he averred.

“There’s no need to hurry because it will not solve the problem of inadequate water supply,” Defensor said.

The governor said he is willing “to go out of my way to help find solutions to the MIWD problem because I am also affected since I am also a resident of the city.”

He also acknowledged that the provincial government should give special concern to the needs and problems of MIWD because they draw their water supply from the town of Maasin. (With reports from ECGarcia)