ILOILO City – Mayor Jose Espinosa III may face criminal and administrative charges for appointing five new members to the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) Board of Directors (BOD).
There was no vacancy in the BOD and the question on who should be the appointing authority of the BOD was yet to be resolved in court, according to MIWD legal counsel Roy Villa.
Espinosa may be held liable for usurpation of official function and abuse of authority, he said.
MIWD learned about Espinosa’s move from the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), according to General Manager Imelda Magsuci.
LWUA asked MIWD to comment on the appointments Espinosa made.
Espinosa’s appointees to MIWD’s BOD were Felicito Tiu representing sectoral organizations (business, commercial or financial organization), Rebecca Maravilla (women’s sector), Dr. Ray Celis (civic-oriented service clubs), Antonio Sangrador (sSectoral organizations / professional associations), and Ronald Raymund Sebastian (educational institutions).
“In observance of due process, kindly submit your comment on the said appointments together with you supporting documents, if any, within 10 days from your receipt of this letter so that we can act on this matter accordingly with dispatch,” read part of LWUA’s acting administrator Jeci Lapuz to MIWD dated June 18, 2018.
In making the appointments, Espinosa cited Presidential Decree (PD) 198 (Provincial Water Utilities Act of 1973) as amended and a decision of the Supreme Court (Rama vs. Moises, et al., G.R. No 197146) promulgated on Dec. 6, 2016 and which became final and executory on Aug. 8, 2017.
In this high court decision on the Metropolitan Cebu Water District case, the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 (b) of PD 198 for being unconstitutional as “it thereby utterly disregarded clear policies favoring local autonomy enshrined in the 1987 Constitution and effected by the 1991 Local Government Code and related and subsequent statutory enactments, and for being violative of the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the 1987 Constitution.”
Under Section 3 (b) of PD 198, if less than 75 percent of the total concessionaires are found in the city, the appointing authority shall be the governor.
The present set of MIWD’s BOD was appointed by Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. of Iloilo province. Espinosa believed the Supreme Court decision invalidated the appointments made by the governor.
LEGAL CHALLENGE
According to Magsuci, MIWD would legally challenge the appointments.
She also said the appointments were yet to be “confirmed” by LWUA s the agency was still waiting for MIWD’s comment on the matter.
The current MIWD directors who each have a term of six years are Dr. Teodoro Robles (chairman), Atty. Juanito Acanto, Dr. Jessica Salas, Ramon Cua-Locsin, and Atty. Josephine Abad-Caram.
Abad-Caram’s term would end in December 2018. Those of Robles and Cua-Locsin would expire in 2020 while those of Acanto and Salas, in 2022.
“We believe the mayor’s action was illegal,” said Villa citing among others the procedures to follow when there is a vacancy in the MIWD BOD.
The corporate secretary is tasked to solicit nominations. After evaluating the nominations, the final list would be submitted it to the appointing authority.
“Mayor Espinosa’s appointments were not based on the list from the corporate secretary. And how could there be a list of nominees when there is no vacancy in the first place,” said Villa. “The terms of the current directors appointed by Governor Defensor have yet to expire.”
By making appointments, Espinosa created public confusion, lamented Villa.
‘DEEMED TERMINATED’
On Dec. 14, 2017 Espinosa announced he was not anymore recognizing the current composition of MIWD’s BOD.
In a letter to MIWD, he ordered the directors “to henceforth cease and desist from further performing the powers and functions of the members of the BOD…”
“Their existence there has been terminated by the decision of the Supreme Court that the law on which their appointments were based is void from the very beginning,” Espinosa said.
But Magsuci insisted the appointments of MIWD directors were valid and had legal basis.
“Ang bal-an ko the application of the law is prospective, indi retro(active). At the time nga na-appoint ang mga board (of directors), wala pa ang latest ruling (of the Supreme Court),” said Magsuci who used to manage the water district in Davao City.
The MIWD BOD rejected Espinosa III’s cease and desist order. Villa then reminded the mayor that under PD 198 water districts function autonomously under their own set of board members.
As an autonomous entity, MIWD was thus “independent from politics and even from the control or supervision of the local government unit,” said Villa./PN
