IBON Features Vol. X No. 58 

On October 15, 2004, AnakPawis Party List/Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU, May First Movement) regional coordinator Sammy Bandilla was shot dead while his companion, a member of the Leyte Metropolitan Water District-Employees Association (LMWD-EA), was seriously wounded. What started as a peaceful protest against the illegal dismissal of 26 water district employees has turned bloody. AnakPawis and KMU linked the killing to the general manager of the LMWD, Engineer Ranulfo Feliciano.

Bandilla’s companion Bernardo Devaras, is one of the 26 dismissed employees. They had just come from an interview at Radyo Diwa in Tacloban where Bandilla lambasted Feliciano and the management’s alleged connivance with the police and military against the water district workers.

This is the second killing related to allegations of corruption within the LMWD. Last year, Eleazar Josef, an employee of the LMWD was killed when it was discovered that he had documents to prove the corrupt acts at the LMWD.

Water districts

Water districts, as provided in Presidential Decree 198 (as amended) are considered quasi-public corporations. This only means that they are performing public service and supplying public wants while they can exercise the powers, rights and privileges given to private corporations under existing Philippine laws. They are tasked to provide Level III water services (with water source, reservoir, and a piped distribution network).

In September 13, 1991, the Supreme Court declared that the Commission on Audit has jurisdiction over local water districts. Feliciano, also the president of the Philippine Association of Water Districts (PAWAD), filed a petition asking the High Court to reverse its decision. He asserted that the nature of water districts is quasi-public or private as stated in PD 198. Before the media, he claimed that with the decision, water districts would not be exempted from paying taxes anymore and would have no choice but to pass on the burden to its consumers.

However, Feliciano has already been passing on to the concessionaires the burden of paying its franchise and income taxes. According to Confederation for the Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage)-Eastern Visayas, these taxes were included in LMWD’s cash flow projections and were used as basis for approving his petition for water rate increases.

Illegally dismissed

The LMWD-EA is currently waging a battle against the management, specifically against Feliciano. Twenty-six regular employees were dismissed after joining a multisectoral rally in February protesting increased water rates, and the pervasive corruption and exploitation inside the water district. Protesters also demanded the ouster of Feliciano.

The management then formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the action of the employees. The committee recommended the dismissal of all the 26 employees who joined the rally for disloyalty to the office. The dismissed employees argue that they were never disloyal to the office, but were only exercising their rights and also fighting for the rights of water district consumers.

That February 5 multisectoral rally proved to be the turning point for the union members. The notice of their dismissal was filed on October 12 at 4:30 in the afternoon. It was to be effective the next day. But civil service rules provide that a minimum of 30 days should be given to an employee before a notice of dismissal is to take effect.

The employees decried their illegal dismissal and picketed at the LMWD office. Up to this moment, the workers are still battling for their rights as regular employees.

Water rate increases, graft and corruption, mismanagement

According to Courage secretary general Santiago Dasmariñas, water rates of the LMWD shot up by 120%-300 % in 2003. No hearing was conducted for the increase while consumers complained that services of the LMWD did not improve.

The management of the LMWD, meanwhile, could not provide sufficient basis for the unheralded increase in the cost of water services. But union members said that the increase in water rates was meant to service the loans incurred by LMWD from lending institutions.

Employees also argue that job order employees were beginning to outnumber the regular employees. They were given jobs that were currently performed by the regular employees. What was more frustrating for the regular employees was they were even accused of inefficiency and laziness.

According to Courage president Ferdinand Gaite, several anti-corruption groups in Eastern Visayas have uncovered evidences of questionable financial transactions at LMWD. A partial total of P108.7-million unliquidated cash advances and needless expenses were discovered. The documents are now in the hands of the leaders of the Alliance of Water Concessionaires Alwacon and Corage Visayas.

One of the questionable transactions is a P68.3-million loan from the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA). This was supposedly for the construction of the 8,635-lineal meter sub-transmission line from BIR Pawing, Palo, Leyte to Nula-Tula, Tacloban City, but with an unknown contractor.

Another questionable transaction is the use of the P21.31-million special deposit trust account of water concessionaires and the alleged P2.4-million overpayment of salaries made by Feliciano. Furthermore, there were reported unliquidated cash advances for Engineer Feliciano’s various domestic travels and unliquidated intelligence and emergency travel fund.

The different sectors in Leyte, including the youth, workers and peasants, have expressed their outrage against the anomalous goings-on inside LMWD. Even members of the ALWACON have joined the protests against the LMWD management. The different sectors are still opposing the 125% unjustified series of water rate increases. Consumers are also demanding for genuine water service available to all and have gained the support from the rank-and-file employees of Tacloban.

'I am not stupid'

Feliciano made two statements for AnakPawis and KMU. First, that he is “not stupid to kill or order anyone to kill somebody”. Second, that he is “not stupid to give in to the demands of the 26 employees or approach their picket line to talk to them”. Murder and frustrated murder charges have been filed by the Task Force Justice for Sammy, Justice for All this month against Feliciano.

Feliciano was also quick to defend the alleged job order employees, calling them “returnees.” They were previously hired by the LMWD and just resumed their work in the water district when he assumed as head of office again, said Feliciano. Furthermore, a local newspaper quoted Feliciano as saying that the “returnees are more efficient than the employees of the union. “Members of the union,” he said, “ are all negligent workers who cared nothing about their work.” He denied that he had any hand in the firing of the workers because his job was supposedly only ministerial. However, as fact-finding committees go, they only recommend; they do not impose.

For responsible water service

The multisectoral clamor for the ouster of Feliciano and the reinstallation of the 26 dismissed employees are just a part of the whole resistance against the corrupt and anomalous practices happening in various water districts in the country. There are other water districts that reportedly have questionable transactions.

Feliciano in insisting that water districts are private corporations—free from the scrutiny of COA and the personnel evaluation of the Civil Service Commission—is, as multisectoral groups put it, scared of his own shadow. Alleged anomalies may be proven true when the hands of COA begin perusing his records. The friction between the management and the LMWD-EA is turning into a personal battle waged by Feliciano against those who oppose his policies.

It has been emphasized a thousand times that water is life. Water districts are government corporations supplying a vital need. Thus government regulation is necessary to ensure that the provision of water services is not ridden with questionable and corrupt practices that will compromise the quality of service that goes to the people. IBON Features