The government is willing to make the proposed new water agreements public once they are either accepted or declined by the two Metro Manila water concessionaires, Malacañang said yesterday.
But for now, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the government aims to finalize the new water deals in six months as earlier mentioned by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra.
The draft water contracts, Panelo assured, would be devoid of the alleged onerous provisions that hounded the current deals with Manila Water Co. Inc. and Maynilad Water Services Inc.
“Sabi ni Secretary Guevarra, it may take six months because there are many matter that have to be discussed and completed,” he said. “As soon as the contract is given to them and they accepted it or decline it, then we will have the necessary publication,” he added.
President Duterte had earlier warned the persons behind the alleged onerous water concession deals against leaving the country or else risk ending up as “fugitive for all time.”
Duterte, outraged by the water deals that alleged broke the country’s anti-graft law, insisted that those behind the deals could be charged and jailed with plunder or large-scale estafa.
“And as a lawyer, when I looked at the contract, it was full of s*** because there in that document is the exact copy of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices. Your crime it could be plunder or it could be a syndicated or estafa on a large scale. In which case, it is non-bailable,” Duterte said during the oath-taking of new government officials in Malacanang last Wednesday. (Genalyn Kabiling)
