CEBU CITY (May 2, 2024) – Mayor Mike Rama has instructed the Board of Directors he appointed for Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) to convene and prepare its assumption of the local water district.
“Mel, trabaho na mo, preparaha na daan,” he said during Ingna’ng Mayor over RMN Sugboanon Channel this morning.
He instructed retired Army Maj. Gen. Melquiades “Mel” Feliciano, as MCWD chairman, to craft the BOD’s “re-entry plan and entry plan of action.”
He suggested short, medium, and long-term plotted in a Gantt chart or using a program evaluation and review technique (PERT) and the critical path method (CPM).
Feliciano acknowledged the Mayor’s instruction and told Cebu City News he will call his colleagues for them to convene next week
Dam & Pipes
Rama called his appointees to convene so that they could also discuss about prior agreements with two major conglomerates that intends to invest in separate projects beneficial to the city’s consumers.
One is the off-take agreement with Prime Infrastructure Capital, Inc. (Prime Infra) of business tycoon Enrique K. Razon, and a separate engagement with Prime Asset Ventures, Inc. (PAVI) of former Senate President Manuel B. Villar.
Through its subsidiary, Manila Water Philippine Ventures, Prime Infra submitted a letter of intent to the Mayor in October 2022 to build a dam along a major tributary of Mananga River in the city’s southern hinterland at no cost to the city.
Its engineers have since undertaken parcellary survey and detailed engineering studies.
During an investment marketing mission a month earlier, Razon told Rama he will have the dam built in just three years and offered, off the cuff, to sell the water to MCWD for only P20 per cubic meter.
In contrast, bulk water supply deals of the MCWD board, whose members the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) suspended, would sell water for P55 to P65 per cubic meter.
PAVI, that operates PrimeWater Infrastructure Corp., offered to the Mayor the replacement of distribution pipes.
Discussions got interrupted after the suspended BOD members casted aspersions claiming it will privatize MCWD.
“(Kanang) off-take agreement (Prime Infra asked for), pareha na sa (kang) Villar (apan) giputol man dayon (by the previous MCWD BOD),” Rama said.
“(Ang) Villar group mo-atiman sa pipes, gipasanginlan ma’g privatization,” he added.
In line with his instruction to Feliciano to convene the new BOD he leads, Rama said “naa na man na sila, dapat mag-istorya na na sila,” even also discuss about these with the LWUA-appointed interim BOD to ensure transparency.
The Rama-appointed BOD with Feliciano as chair has experienced government corporation policy-maker and executive Aristotle Batuhan, businessman Nelson Yuvallos, and lawyers Danilo Ortiz and Earl Bunachita as members.
Despite any MCWD board action yet, Rama said he will follow up with Razon his intent to build the dam for the city. “Mobalik man ko didto sa Manila, paninglan nato,” he said.
He lashed at the MCWD members he fired for sowing intrigues, pointing out that they have only become defensive.
“Apilan na gani ka’g daghan tawo motan-aw, mora gyud ka’g magkurog-kurog kay masakpan na man ka. Karon, daghan na kaayo nag-tan-aw,” he said.
| RMN/cte
Cebu City • News & Information 