By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — Three officials of Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa) want the appointment of the sixth member of their Board of Directors nullified.
Chairman Lawrence Villanueva and directors Lorendo Dilag and Marichi Ramos filed with a regional trial court here a nullification of appointment order with prayer for preliminary injunction against Baciwa director Alfredo Bayanin and Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) administrator Andres Ibarra.
Ibarra appointed Bayanin, an engineer, to the Baciwa Board on June 4 to replace Atty. Yolanda Zaragosa, whose stint expired on May 30.
In their case filed on Friday, Villanueva, Dilag, and Ramos asked the court to declare Ibarra’s appointment order null and void.
They accused Ibarra of “grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction” and “violation of Article 5, Section 5 of the Financial Assistance Contract executed December 15, 1998, between Baciwa and LWUA.”
They also asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction enjoining Bayanin against assuming as sixth member of the Board.
According to the complainants, LWUA can appoint a sixth Board of Directors member only if the water district acquired a loan and was in arrears for at least two months, or was previously nonoperational.
As far as Baciwa’s P537,614,000 loan with LWUA is concerned, while the water district continues to pay, there are no arrears, the complainants said.
They also said the Board on February 14, 2013, unanimously approved a resolution asking LWUA for clearance to take out/refinance its loan — which has an annual interest of 12.5 percent — and transfer it to Land Bank of the Philippines, which offered only a six-percent annual interest.
The takeout/refinance will translate to annual savings of more than P30 million per year. It will also relieve Baciwa of any indebtedness to LWUA, negating the legal basis for the appointment of Bayanin, they said.
The Board reiterated the plan in a May 20, 2014 resolution, they said, but LWUA has not yet responded to the request until now./PN
