MANILA – Maynilad Water Services Inc. is “more than willing” to drop arbitration proceedings with government as long as there is a “way forward” on tariffs, its chairman, Manuel Pangilinan said Monday.
President Rodrigo Duterte recently ordered a review of all government contracts in the wake of a water shortage that affected Maynilad rival Manila Water.
“I think were trying to settle that kasi kami rin we don’t want to be in that situation with the government so I think that is being discussed with the MWSS because we, assuming we come to terms on the tariff issue, then we are more than willing to drop the arbitration case,” Pangilinan told reporters.
“Ang tagal na nito, we want to settle (This has dragged for so long, we want to settle),” he said.
In October last year, the Singapore High Court upheld its arbitral award in favor of Maynilad, according to a stock exchange filing by the water distributor’s minority shareholder, DMCI Holdings.
The Philippine government, on Feb. 13, 2018, asked the Singapore court to set aside partial award to Maynilad issued on July 24, 2017. The Singapore court dismissed the petition and Manila did not file an appeal, according to the DMCI disclosure.
According to DMCI, the arbitral award upheld Maynilad’s claim and ordered the Philippine government to compensate the water distributor for revenue losses due to regulators’ refusal to implement tariff adjustments from 2013 to 2017. (ABS-CBN News)
