(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, December 3, vowed to take to court the people behind the government’s contracts with water concessionaires that he said were disadvantageous to the people.
The President in particular took issue with a provision in the agreements signed between the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, a government corporation, and Manila Water and Maynilad that said the government should pay the two companies for losses they incur should the state interfere in the implementation of agreed-upon water rates.
Duterte said those behind the pacts were liable for economic sabotage.
“I will make their life hereon very, very, very miserable,” Duterte said of them.
Duterte said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Solicitor General Jose Calida have been tasked to create a new concession agreement.
“Ibigay mo sa kanila. This is the amended contract. Accept it or nothing to it. Pero hahabulin ko talaga sila for economic sabotage,” Duterte said.
Earlier, an arbitration court in Singapore ruled that the Philippine government should pay Manila Water P7.39 billion for the concessionaire’s losses from June 1, 2015 to November 22, and the amounts paid to the PCA and 85% of other claimed costs.
Manila Water had sought the intervention of the court after the government stopped it from raising tariffs, hence the losses.
Duterte railed against the concessionaires days after the Department of Justice, which he had tasked to conduct a review of the 1997 agreements in March, amid the water shortage, presented what it said were onerous provisions in the contracts in a Cabinet meeting.
Apart from the clause banning the government from interfering in setting rates, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the extension of the concession agreements to 2037 was “irregular.”
The deals, which were good for 25 years, were supposed to expire in 2022, but they were reportedly extended for another 15 years in 2009.
