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Bencyrus Ellorin

FOR the longest time, residents of the western part of the city have been suffering from the poor services of the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD). But if it’s any consolation, residents of upland barangays have yet to enjoy the convenience of water delivered right into the faucets of their houses. They have never been served by the water utility given the franchise to provide water services into the homes of all Cagayan de Oro.

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For a short period in 2007, I was acting chairman of the City Cooperative Development Council. It was during my brief stint that the cooperative sector of the city seriously thought of buying the COWD which for years had reported either net profit loss or breakeven. Why that happened to a public utility which basically has monopoly to provide water services to city residents is hard to imagine. To say that it was mismanagement, we thought, was inaccurate. There must be something mysterious happening inside that office across the provincial jail on Corrales Avenue.

One of the ringing issues then was the bulk water supply contract of the Rio Verde Water Consortium Inc. and the COWD in 2005. Many experts thought the pricing and off-take provisions of the bulk water contract were onerous in favor of the consortium.

During the Magtajas administration in 1997, planners at the COWD proposed development of surface water sources as dependence on underground wells would no longer be sustainable due to rapid urbanization and depletion of the city’s watershed which replenishes the city’s aquifers.

The idea then was for COWD to raise capital expenditure to develop surface water sources from the upstream of Cagayan de Oro River. I was then a rookie reporter then covering the city hall beat. The proposal was feasible and naturally sounded good.

Whatever happened to that plan is now history. A few years after the Emano administration took the helm of city hall, things changed. And soon the consortium spearheaded by business tycoon Pepito Alvarez came.

From its inception, the COWD-Rio Verde bulkwater contract was a prickly issue. It was sacrosanct. It is only recently that the COWD board has taken the Rio Verde bulk water contract by the horn.

A brief respite in 2007 to 2010 had reformers thinking they could change things. Big cooperatives thought Mayor Tinnex Jaraula had the political will, and so, the sector made an offer to buy out the ailing water utility. I left the city in 2008 for work and studies abroad, leaving the advocacy to the able hands of Dr. Boy Mercado and the financial expert of the First Community Cooperative, Isagani Daba, with strong backing from the then regional director and current chairman of the Cooperative Development Authority, Orlando R. Ravanera.

The cooperatives made very sound financial and organizational analysis of COWD to support the strong case for a cooperative takeover. But I learned that when the “Alas” came back to city hall, talks of “cooperativizing” the COWD hit a wall.

And now the water crisis. Ingong pa’s katigulangan, maayo man og sili nga muhalang diretso. Yes, water consumers, especially in the western part of the city, are itching, actually suffering from COWD’s mismanagement and that onerous bulk water contract with Rio Verde.

It is appalling now that apologists of the previous administration are crying foul over the supposed contract of COWD and the Metro Pacific group of Manny V. Pangilinan. They are saying that the prices of water under the proposed deal is more expensive than the present rates of Rio Verde. And then Kagawad Leon Gan was quick to blame Mayor Oscar Moreno.

Does this expose mean that suddenly, the Rio Verde deal became beneficial to the consumers? No.

The fact is that Rio Verde is asking for price hike from COWD. And because the present leadership of the COWD won’t allow it, they refused to deliver additional orders to satisfy the 60,000 cubic meters a day and stick to their contracted supply of 40,000 cubic meters a day or demand higher rates per cubic meter. Both the COWD and Rio Verde have announced they have mutually agreed to rescind the 2005 sweetheart deal which is now under arbitration in court.

Another glaring fact that may have been swept under the rug in this discussion is the impending sale of Rio Verde to MVP’s group. Gold Star Daily’s editor-in-chief correctly observed in his recent column that the Rio Verde may be dragging its feet in making repairs to its pipelines as it would be expensive and anyway, they will be sold out eventually.

I hope the city council committee investigating the COWD mess led by Kagawad Bong Lao would consider these facts. I laud Kagawad Enrico Salcedo for reviving the plan to “cooperativize” the COWD. I hope, too, that true to its social enterprise nature, the big cooperative would once again rise to the occasion.

Simply put, putting to the fore the Metropac deal is a smokescreen. Gan of the demised city hall administration is putting forward the alleged defects in the COWD Metro Pacific deal to put the administration of Moreno in bad light. He is trying to cover the mother problem which is the 2005 sweetheart deal, purportedly with the mighty blessing of the Alas. This is consistent to their propensity to blindly push their political agenda, like in the filing of multiple nuisance cases mysteriously dignified by the Ombudsman against Moreno, in a contrived attempt to demonize the present administration. Gan and Co. would not mind prolonging the agony of the water consumers. He will shout, push wildly, he will dance with the demigods like a spurned person who has gone berserk.

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