RTC stops interim board of MIWD

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

THE board of directors of Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) that was ousted a week ago regained their seats after the Regional Trial Court issued a 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) against the “interim board” installed by the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA).

Judge Edgardo L. Catilo of RTC Branch 23 granted Monday the TRO sought by the MIWD board composed of Celso Javelosa, Sergio Gonzalez, Danilo Encarnacion, Adrian Moncada and Bernadette Castellano.

Corporate secretary and lawyer Hans Sayno said the TRO is part of the quo warranto case they filed against the interim board composed of Emmanuel Malicdem, Hermilo Balucan, Romeo Gerochi, Jessica Salas and Enrique Gita and MIWD general manager Le Jayme Jalbuena.

The quo warranto case questioned LWUA’s ousting of the MIWD board headed by Javelosa and sought a writ of preliminary injunction against their ouster and assumption of the interim board.

In his order dated November 22. Judge Catilo ordered the respondents, except Jalbuena, “to cease and desist from exercising the duties and functions of (the) Board of Directors of MIWD for a period of 20 days from date hereof and/or until ordered by the Court.”

Judge Catilo said the MIWD directors “are entitled to the relief” as their continued ouster from MIWD during the litigation would probably work injustice to them.

The RTC also noted that “the petitioners have in their favor appointments duly issued by the competent appointing authority and have accordingly discharged the functions as members of the board of MIWD for quite a long time already with no less than the LWUA itself confirming and recognizing their appointments.”

Judge Catilo also said that the legality of the appointment of the interim board installed by LWUA is “still in question” since there is no provision under Presidential Decree 198 authorizing LWUA to install such interim board.

The RTC said LWUA’s power to appoint an interim board is limited only to the situation when a water district owes LWUA money.

The Javelosa-led board was ousted after LWUA nullified their appointments made by the Iloilo City mayor.

LWUA based its actions on the provisions of PD 198 which authorizes the city mayor to appoint MIWD directors if 75% of active service connections in the city. Otherwise, the appointing authority would be the provincial governor.

Citing a Supreme Court case (LWUA, et. al. vs Gordon), Judge Catilo said the MIWD board are also classified as government employees and are subject to Civil Service laws “so that petitioners cannot just be summarily ousted or removed from office by LWUA.”

Javelosa said they will review the decisions of the interim board during their board meeting.

Javelosa said they are willing to retain “beneficial” decisions of their erstwhile replacements although they are concerned with the water drilling project in Oton and San Miguel.

“It will cost the water district P6-8 million but there is no assurance that we will be getting quality water because of the possible salt water intrusion as reported by environment officials,” he said.

MIWD is notorious for delivering water on intermittent basis to only 20 percent of its total concessionaires.