After a bitter experience with Benpres and French company Suez, we do not see the rationale behind the rush to reprivatize Maynilad Water Services Inc., a step that will begin on Monday’s annual shareholders’ meeting of the company.

The argument of the Department of Finance (DOF) that reprivatization would save the government almost $53.67 million is an insult to some 5.7 million Maynilad customers. In the first place, the government could have avoided such undue financial burden if it did not allow Maynilad to get away with corporate rehabilitation.

Under the corporate rehabilitation plan, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) will shell out $22.67 million in subscription fees to buy 84% of the water utility. In addition, it will borrow $31 million from the World Bank for Maynilad’s capital and operating expenses as well as to fund the programs identified in the rehabilitation plan, thus a total amount of $53.67 million.

Meanwhile, the MWSS absolved Lopez-owned Benpres from paying the concession fees for the period March 2001 to December 2004 worth P8 billion, which will be paid by Suez and whoever will take the place of Benpres through reprivatization from 2010 to 2012. This means that for the meantime, the MWSS will have to pay the concession fees or the amount due to MWSS creditors prior to its privatization in August 1997, out of the already drained government resources.

The Lopez bailout may be President Gloria Arroyo’s insurance that Vice President Noli de Castro, a prominent media personality and former key official in the Lopez-owned ABS-CBN media network, will remain loyal to her government amid the worsening political crisis and widespread clamor for her resignation. But aside from her political survival, Arroyo’s mishandling of the Maynilad fiasco also stems from the desperation of her regime to keep the confidence of private and foreign investors in the bankrupt government and economy.

What is definite is that the priorities of the Arroyo government are misplaced as it insists that it has no interest in keeping Maynilad, while it is clear that public interest requires state control on the provision of water services. The lack of interest of the Arroyo government to take full control over Maynilad underscores its gross negligence on the plight of thousands of households in Metro Manila that suffer from the inefficiency and insatiable thirst for profits of big private water business.