BY ERWIN ‘AMBO’ DELILAN
THE CURRENT water woes highlighted by turbid water in Bacolod City might endanger the political soul of Secretary Mark Villar of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in next year’s elections. They might become his “waterloo” on his planned Senate bid.
Irate Bacolodnons are now fuming mad due to “choco” water gushing from their faucets from time to time. Thus, they lambast the controversial “marriage” of Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa) with the Villar-led Prime Water Infrastructure Corp. (Prime Water) via an “unwanted” 25-year Joint Venture Agreement (JVA). For them, such union has resulted to poor water service.
Baciwa’s and Prime Water’s 10-month “honeymoon” was marred by people’s anger. On Facebook (FB), netizens are ranting and even cursing Baciwa and Prime Water, including the Villars. Funny memes about Baciwa, Prime Water and the Villars flooded the social media.
Prime Water has already “invaded” more than a hundred water districts in the country. Mark’s mom, Sen. Cynthia Villar, is the publicly-listed owner of Prime Water
Aside from Bacolod, Prime Water also penetrated the water districts in Cadiz, Bago and Himamaylan in Negros Occidental (NegOcc).
Bacolodnons are expecting that, with Villar’s Prime Water, the city’s water system will be upgraded leading to superb water quality. Alas, for 10 months now, such expectation was clouded with lots of water woes.
Baciwa is trying to parry the loathsome posts and comments on FB, but to no avail still. One of the simple yet meaningful and touching FB post was from a lady netizen in Fortune Towne Subdivision: “Baciwa, have mercy on us!”
Fortune Towne experienced a two-day “waterless” scenario, prompting residents to show their “angst” and “fangs”. Such post gathered empathies from other netizens from Cadiz, Bago and Himamaylan, who also have similar water woes in their places. They, too, also blamed Prime Water.
On Wednesday, I got a chance to talk to Baciwa acting general manager Mike Soliva. In a low-toned voice, he acknowledged such uproar (in social media) by their water concessionaires. He himself, being a chemical engineer by profession, indirectly admitted being “feeble” on the issue. His immediate recourse is to (always) refer the matter, especially the FB rants, to Prime Water.
He explained that in the JVA, Prime Water is now in-charge of the operations and finance while Baciwa is only within the orb of monitoring activities. Nonetheless, he said they are now doing their best by exerting more effort to address the problems.
Prime Water, he disclosed, already earmarked hundreds of millions of pesos for their rehabilitation program. But the current health pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus hindered them to make full-swing work.
Their procurement of the needed supplies and materials from Manila was even hampered by the COVID-19. Of the proposed six new wells to be constructed in Bacolod, only two have been done so far.
But Soliva said they’re now focusing on the interconnection aspect to address leaks and pilferage to reduce the non-revenue water (NWR) which also burdens water consumers.
Soliva though is still a “rookie” in this kind of tumult. The way I assess him, there’s no sense of urgency yet on his part how to arrest people’s anguish. Maybe he’s not aware that the water woes before are no longer the same “in essence and relevance” after Baciwa’s and Prime Water’s union.
Though he stressed that he’s still in his proper mindset with an undisturbed focus to prove their critics wrong, Soliva probably doesn’t know how to qualify and quantify the gravity of the current woes. And he should not wait that turbid water will become synonymous to Prime Water or either way. It would be “politically disastrous” for Mark.
In the next nine months, things for sure would be in critical state to be worsened by the political season. The JVA will become a potent political issue. And that turbid or “choco” water may mar Mark’s political ambition of following his parents’ (Manny and Cynthia) footsteps in the Senate. It would definitely affect both the credibility and integrity of the Villar family. Mark could become the immediate beneficiary of people’s hatred.
Per the 2019 report from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Bacolod has a total of 312,816 registered voters; Cadiz, 92,671; Bago, 100,368; and Himamaylan, 68,350.
If combined, Mark stands to lose more than half a million votes from these localities if and when the current water crisis remains unresolved. And it’s not a remote possibility.
Adding to the brouhaha (just in case) is the imposition of the 12 percent value added tax (VAT) on the total amount of the water bill(s) of the concessionaires. In Bacolod, Soliva said, Prime Water is set to impose such within this 2021.
Just imagine if you’re paying an average of P5,000/month for your water bill. With 12 percent VAT, it’ll become P5,600/month.
But Soliva said the VAT and the increase are both inevitable.
Yes, he’s right.
But to pay the increase and VAT for turbid water is quite unacceptable for Bacolodnons and Negrosanons, especially in this time of health pandemic. Hence, no amount of political ads or whatsoever that could somehow redeem the Villars’ image and credibility in Bacolod and Negros Occidental except in producing clean and safe water for everyone.
Soliva, much more Baciwa’s chairman of the board, Atty. Indong Dilag, musn’t just sit down and relax or ignore people’s ranting. Whether they like or not, they need (now) to poke the hammer at Prime Water’s main door to compel the latter to fast-track rehabilitation works.
If not, ain’t farfetched that Mark may suffer “political disaster” in Bacolod and even in some major cities in the province.
Turbid water (contaminated by iron and manganese) could somehow “infect” people’s physical and mental health, causing them to terribly hate the Villars or Mark per se during next year’s polls. Thus, by hook or by crook, Baciwa and Prime Water should act now by doubling or tripling their efforts to create “miracle” through water to save Mark’s political future.
If not, people will continue to get angry. And if they’re angry, they’ll think of revenge. If they’ll seek revenge, they’ll hunt the culprit. Since Prime Water is no ordinary company, they’ll divert their fury to somebody who owns it.
Water is life, therefore essential amid the pandemic. And much more in the 2022 elections./PN
