By JOEY NACALABAN
Correspondent .
THE lawyer of the councilors seeking to void the 2017 contract between the Cagayan de Oro Water District and Metro Pacific Water Investments Corp. yesterday cited two bases for his call for Mayor Oscar Moreno to remove the COWD directors.
At the same time, the lawyer, James Judith, challenged COWD officials to cite their legal basis to assert that the mayor cannot remove its directors. He said this assertion is merely based on “tradition” but without a legal basis.
Judith’s bases for calling on Moreno to dismiss the entire COWD board: Iloilo Mayor Jose Espinosa III’s December 2017 cautionary/cease and desist notice against five members of the board of the Metro Iloilo Water District, and a 1999 Supreme Court ruling where it stated, “Absent any contrary statutory provision, the power to appoint carries with it the power to remove or to discipline.”
The lawyer argues that the mayor has the power to appoint as well as to remove the COWD directors.
Judith said Mayor Espinosa’s “cautionary/cease and desist notice” against the MIWD’s directors was made ahead of their plan to finalize a joint venture distribution contract with Metro Pacific similar to the agreement between COWD and Metro Pacific last year.
He said Espinosa was opposed to a plan by MIWD to award a P2.3-billion contract to Metro Pacific and so, the Iloilo mayor wanted to appoint a new set of directors.
“Pareho ra kaayo sa nahitabo diri sa ato nga mga [directors] nakasupak sa ilang pangagamhanan sa water district. Atong makita nga puede gyud diay matangtang sa mayor ang mga miembro sa board,” Judith said.
In the MIWD case, the directors were appointees of Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. who was recognized as the appointing authority because of Section 3(b) of Presidential Decree 198 or the Provincial Water Utilities Act. It provides that if the total number of concessionaires in the city is less than 75 percent, the governor becomes the appointing authority but if it is beyond 75 percent, it’s the mayor. The utility’s concessionaires in Iloilo is only roughly 63 percent.
But Espinosa asserted that he is the appointing authority, citing a SC decision that declared Section 3(b) of PD 198 “unconstitutional.”
Judith said he cited the Iloilo experience to point out that the mayor can “remove” his appointees in the water district if he wants to.
He also cited a SC ruling on Dec. 17, 1999 on the case between the city legal officer of Manila and the chief of the Legal Affairs and Complaint Services of the Division of City Schools of Manila (Aguirre v de Castro, GR 127631).
In the case, the issue was whether or not the Office of the City Legal Officer of Manila had jurisdiction to investigate the complaint for grave misconduct filed against the respondent. The court ruled that since the respondent was appointed by the regional director of the education department, then the regional director may discipline or remove the appointee because “Absent any contrary statutory provision, the power to appoint carries with it the power to remove or to discipline.”
Judith said the COWD is a government-owned and -controlled corporation and is unlike independent constitutional bodies like the SC or the ombudsman where appointed officials cannot be removed by the executive.
He said there is no law that prohibits a mayor who appointed directors in a water district from dismissing them.
“I will ask them to cite a law that states that they can’t be removed. Cite me one. It’s just tradition that has no legal basis,” Judith said.
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