The tycoons behind the two water companies are just “water boys” tasked to distribute water to the people and should have not been given the right to decide on rate adjustments, President Duterte declared last Thursday.
The President made the latest rebuke of Fernando Zobel de Ayala of Manila Water Co. Inc. and Manuel Pangilinan of Maynilad Water Services Inc. after threatening to sue and jail persons involved in the alleged onerous contracts for economic plunder.
“Ayala pati si Panginilian, do you think, naku. You better start to pray. Alam mo si Digong abogado. Before being the President, I am a Filipino and I was financed by my mother and father,” Duterte said during the inauguration of the Tent at the Vista Global South in Las Piñas City.
“Itong si Ayala at si Pangilinan, water boy lang natin yan. T*** i** nila. Ang trabaho nila taga-deliver lang ng tubig,” he said.
The water distribution contracts, however, contained alleged onerous provisions that prevented the government from interfering in rate-setting and allowed indemnity for losses in case of such interference, according to the President.
Duterte had earlier said the country’s sovereignty over the water resources was bargained away in these contracts.
“We entered into a contract na ibinigay natin, we surrendered the right to increase or decrease…ang decision nasa kanila. San ka nakakita? Sila ang may karapatan,” he said.
He also bewailed that the controversial concession agreements, forged by the government with the two water firms in 1997, were hidden from the Filipino people. “The contract was never seen by the Filipino people. Tinago nila,” he said.
He asserted that these concession contracts should have undergone the congressional scrutiny.
“That job belongs to the Congress of the Philippines. If you want to increase and decrease, then give tax exemptions, you give away money, only Congress can do that,” he said.
He also found irregular that the water was treated as a commodity instead of a natural resource in the contracts with two water firms.
“To treat water as a commodity, Congress will never agree to that. That contract was really tinago nila yan. Tinago ng mga p**** i***,” he said.
“Ngayon, if for any reason, they incur losses, we have to pay for their losses,” he lamented. (Genalyn Kabiling)