PR - Militants to MWSS: Junk Concession Agreements

Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lunsod - NCRR

PRESS RELEASE

09 July 2013

Anthony Barnedo 0949-7518792

Gie Relova 0998-3454981

Militants to MWSS: Junk Concession Agreements, 

Demand immediate and full refund

More than a hundred members of the militant urban poor group Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralita ng Lungsod (KPML) from various communities in the metropolis marched to Head Office of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS). The group urged the regulatory agency to issue an order to its two private concessionaires, the Manila Water and Maynilad to refund the illegal charges collected by the two companies.

“An immediate refund is not only just, but is also a matter of life and death for us because we have been living in abject poverty for the longest time and the refund shall serve as an economic relief,” said Anthony Barnedo, Secretary-General of KPML-NCRR. 

The militants charged that the MWSS Regulatory Office failed to keep a close watch on its two franchisees for allowing the people, especially the urban poor to be systematically exploited by the firms, on top of the fact that their services are inadequate and rates far from those promised in 1997. “All these blunders by the MWSS Regulatory Office is not solely on the shoulders of administrator but is second nature to the onerous and highly-flawed concession agreements it signed in behalf of the people, which ultimately punished the people,” Barnedo clarified.

In the meantime, Gie Relova, the Secretary-General of the militant labor group Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino-National Capital Region and Rizal (BMP-NCRR) said that, “The promise of cheaper rates and quality water services by the privatization of MWSS has clearly brought about only misery to the people and is a downright failure. No doubt, it must be discontinued in order to allow more favorable provisions for the consumers”. ###