SUSPEND WATER RATE HIKES, REVIEW WATER PRIVATIZATION POLICY!

As the New Year begins, we are bombarded with a multitude of crises that further impoverish the poorest among us and serve as added burdens to the rest. The PPA makes a comeback, gasoline prices are about to rise again, and as expected, waterrates are shooting up. Manila Water is raising its water tariffs to P17 on a staggered basis, while Maynilad’s rates climb to P26, also on a staggered basis. The move to raise water rates incrementally is a tactic devised to ease the impact of the actual amount of increases. When consumers review their bills in February and in the following months to come, they will find that their water rates will have increased, despite the two concessionaires’ claims that they have conducted “public consultations”. In truth, Manila Water held consultations in urban poor areas where the residents still do not have water connections and would have consented to any price proposal only to gain access to water. Maynilad flatly refused to hold any consultations at all. They simply walked away from the contract after being refused their desired tariff level. They have filed a P21 Billion claim with the International Arbitration Panel (IAP) due to be deliberated in February.

Is Maynilad really leaving? Then why is the government still raising water rates in the West Zone to P26? Does that mean that MWSS plans to maintain that rate as it takes over the concession? What is the status of re-bidding plans? When new bidders come into the picture, will they be allowed to make bids lower than P26 per cubic meter?

While we do not blame President Arroyo for setting the prices of commodities and utilities, we wish to point out that all these excesses take place amidst her vow to focus her energies on economic and political reform.

If President Arroyo is serious about putting together a comprehensive economic reform package, she should include a thorough review of the government’s privatization policy for the water sector in the light of unrelenting price hikes and inefficient service by the private concessionaires, as well as weaknesses in the current regulatory set-up. In particular, we ask the Arroyo government, through the pertinent agencies, to 1) suspend the water rate hikes until further study (in Congress, there is House Resolution 926 to this effect) and until the IAP deliberations are settled 2) marshal the MWSS and its economic team to defeat Maynilad’s IAP bid 3) expedite the establishment of an independent water regulatory commission in the mold of the Energy Regulation Commission, where consumers have a legal personality to contest increases and other water-related issues and 4) craft a long-term water policy beyond privatization whose priority is water access for all Filipinos, especially the urban poor.

We appeal to the new DPWH Secretary Bayani Fernando, in his capacity as chairman of the MWSS Board of Trustees and the MMDA, to review the performance of the MWSS, the Regulatory Office and the concessionaires and see for himself the grave problems that Metro Manilans experience with regards to water service. We appeal to Sec. Romulo Neri of the NEDA to facilitate the review of the water privatization scheme and the implementation of an old NEDA proposal to establish an independent regulatory commission for water. We challenge the Arroyo administration to hold its own against Maynilad and the Lopezes: Maynilad must go and it must be penalized. We consumers will not pay P21 billion for the failure of this company and for the failure of the water privatization program.

Alliance of Progressive Labor AKBAYAN