DIGOS CITY — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday faulted Manila Water President Jose Rene Almendras “and other Malacañang employees” for the “disadvantageous” water concession contract that the government signed with the company and the Pangilinan-led Maynilad.
Almendras was former Energy secretary under President Benigno Aquino and was later named as Foreign Affairs secretary.
He said Almendras worked with other lawyers to craft the concession agreements that made the country surrender its sovereign rights over water to Maynilad and Manila Water.
He said the two companies also acted as if they owned the water they were distributing and would even punish consumers by not delivering them water.
“Noong panahon na wala ng tubig, doon ko na nakuha ang kalokohan nila. Somebody told me that there is water so I asked the military intelligence community na silipin nila kung mayroon ba talagang tubig, sabi nila mayroon,” he said.
Duterte said the report he got from the military made him mad that he threatened to slap Maynilad and Manila Water officials “if there would still be no water when I get home.”
Duterte was in Thailand when the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which awarded at least PHP10.8 billion in indemnification over their losses from the previous government’s disapproval of the water rate hike they sought.
A day after he made the threat, Duterte said water flowed again in Metro Manila.
“That’s when I really got mad,” he said, pointing out that he was correct about water availability all along.
Duterte said he will go after Manila Water chair Jaime Zobel de Ayala and Maynilad’s Manuel Pangilinan and that he will “deliver them to the people.”
He said the concession contracts “cannot be novated” or changed.
“That contract cannot be corrected, and that contract is null and void from the very beginning. There is no need to be a bar topnotcher to know after reading that it is a big foolishness,” Duterte said.
Duterte also said to address the growing water problem in Manila, the government will push for the construction of the Wawa and Kaliwa dams.
“This will be the last resort to have water for Manila. I will order them to go ahead and we will pay the natives and we will relocate them,” he said.
Duterte said he was warning the courts against issuing TROs because he will not honor them.
“If I see any TRO, I will go to the judge and let him explain to me his TRO. (If I won’t get satisfied with his explanation) I will let him eat his TRO,” he added. (PNA)
