BACOLOD City Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran said yesterday that he is not in favor of the privatization plan of the Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa).
His statement came after the Baciwa management recently received an unsolicited proposal from Metro Pacific Investments Corp. to form a joint venture corporation.
Familiaran said the Baciwa management should thoroughly check and study the proposal.
"Baciwa should improve its service, but not through the privatization plan,” he said. “It is a big problem of Baciwa if they fail to improve the water supply in Bacolod by next year.”
Familiaran said there are some areas in the city with low water supply which until now Baciwa has failed to address.
Claudio Salmo, president of Baciwa Employees Union (BEU), had earlier said the unsolicited proposal of the Metropac to Baciwa will lead to the privatization of the water district.
He had also said that if it pushes through, 80 percent of profit will go to the private entity and Baciwa will get only 20 percent.
The Metropac proposal includes rehabilitation, and build-operate- transfer scheme.
Moreover, Familiaran said that if Baciwa will be privatized, it will definitely affect its consumers.
Salmo had said the takeover will allow the private entity to implement rate increase anytime.
For his part, Baciwa general manager Mario Macatangay said they are now consulting with the BEU because the changes will affect both permanent and casual employees.
He added that representatives of MetroPac will arrive on Monday instead to present and explain their proposal to the union members.
“We received the unsolicited proposal and it is incumbent upon us to review and evaluate whether we will accept or reject it,” Macatangay said.
The management is creating an ad hoc committee that will study the proposal, but the Baciwa Board will still have the final say.
“We are looking at 2022, and the picture of the water supply system in five years. Our receiving facilities can still accommodate water supply and the volume from our existing sources, but what happens after five years? With the development that is coming to Bacolod City, our receiving facilities would not be enough for bulk water supply,” Macatangay said.
He added: “We have to construct reservoirs, rehabilitate, and replace the distribution system so we need huge capital pegged from P800 million to P1 billion.”
Macatangay said the only alternative left for Baciwa is to go the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) for financial assistance.
“We can do it by administration but we will hire consultants to do it for us. We would also need capital so we will have to loan or we enter into a private-public partnership where there will be no capital involved for Baciwa because in this model you allow the private sector to invest in public sector service. There will only be regulation of water rates by LWUA,” he added.