It will be recalled that over a year ago, Mayor Bernabe was proclaiming that there will be water in notoriously waterless BF Homes. [“Parañaque City’s long wait for water is over”– Inquirer 02/10/07]. In fact, the giant posters and billboards with his ubiquitous pictures and those of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Vice-President Noli de Castro, from the pedestrian overpass in the Sucat Interchange, to other parts of the city and in BF Homes, thank the national officials for bringing water to the subdivision. People are quick to tell us how lucky we are to have water in BF Homes, until we tell them that water is only in the papers and the billboards. Ask any beleaguered homeowner in the village.
As early as 2000, the United BF Homeowners’ Associations, Inc. (UBFHAI) board of directors was already meeting with Maynilad for the interconnection to BF Homes. It was a funny situation because it (Maynilad) would have to sit down separately with BF Homes, Inc. (BFHI) and Philippine Waterworks and Construction Corporation (PWCC) better known as BF Homes Waterworks (BFW), which owns the water system, and the association. Dealing with BFHI is like dealing with a child. In the end, connection was made through UBFHAI’s largest member association (BF Northwest) from the Lopez gate, but only on the scheme whereby BFHI would buy water in bulk and resell it to the homeowners. The directors agreed to the arrangement, just to have the connection made and deal with the other matters later. Indeed, water came in for about two months to the relief of the Parañaque residents of the subdivision.
But this should also be emphasized: Maynilad can only provide 30% of the water consumption needs of the 765 ha. subdivision. It was clear on that from the beginning. What this means is that even if Maynilad supplies BF Homes with water, it will only come up to a little over 30% of our total needs (adding the trickle, if at all, we get from BFHI/BFW), until such time a new and better water source is found.
In early 2001, Maynilad cut off connection to BF Homes for failure of BFHI/BFW to pay its bills. The latter claimed the charges were too high. Of course, it was high because the account was classified commercial. If it consented to have individual meters for homeowners, the rate would have been much lower.
Sometime in 2004, after Meralco shut down power supply to the pumps, again for failure of BFHI to pay its bills, the UBFHAI directors brought the matter to the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB). A meeting was conducted there between UBFHAI, BFHI/BFW and Meralco. It was revealed that BFHI/BFW owed Meralco something like P41 Million in arrears, which it also refused to pay, claiming overpayment in previous billings.
UBFHAI thereafter secured a decision in the case of Arranza, et al. v. BFHI, et al., which it filed way back in 1990, directing the latter to provide 24-hour water supply to the subdivision, failing which, to turn over the water system to UBFHAI. The association moved for an execution pending appeal, but the motion was somehow lost after some government officials intervened, or so we were told. The case is now in the Court of Appeals. This is how things work in this country.
Thereafter, the directors filed a complaint in the MWSS for the turnover of the water system to the homeowners association under the old Presidential decree, but the case was dismissed because at the time, there were no implementing rules and regulations for the decree.
This is not quite understood by the public, but the executive order of President Arroyo, which has been touted to finally make possible the takeover of a subdivision’s water system by the homeowners association, is actually only the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the old decree.
The IRR provides that the petition for takeover shall be made by either the developer or the duly constituted homeowners association. But there are other basic requirements for the petition that only the developer can comply with, such as the mandatory pressure tests and the technical data on the pipes and equipment, so that even if the association files the petition, it will not move, until the developer complies with the technical requirements. And in BF Homes, the developer’s intransigence is legend! The problem is thus reduced to a Sisyphean situation.
What is now actually being negotiated is still bulk sale of water to BFHI/BFW as in 2000, but the latter is asking so much [P51/cu.m.], and Maynilad and dear Mayor are reportedly angling for less. [“P49 per cubic meter would be acceptable,” Mayor Bernabe told The STAR – 05/12/08]. The waterworks insists it cannot lower the proposed consumer rate considering the high systems losses due to leakage. The 40-year old water system, dormant for the last 20 years or thereabouts, will leak like a sieve upon activation. Consequently, the lower rate similar to those of other neighbouring subdivisions like Tahanan [P25/cu.m.] is simply not viable.
There was some press release also that Maynilad or the mayor said they will force the take over of the water system, and BFHI reportedly said go ahead, and it will file for an injunction in court. It could too, under the principles of due process and just compensation, since it still owns the system on paper.
The scuttlebutt is that there is an interconnection agreement at P46 per cubic meter negotiated by the mayor which rate he claims is acceptable to BF homeowners. Not surprisingly, BF homeowners are being conditioned to accept the negotiated rate of P46 which is 84% higher to Tananan’s P25 since this is less than that of deepwell water delivered by enterprising water haulers at P85.
The rate of water haulers is high because of the high cost of water extraction and delivery by water tankers. This rate can be reduced to acceptable level if accredited water haulers are allowed in the interim to buy from Maynilad at less than Tahanan’s P25/cu.m. for delivery to BF homeowners.
So, the bottom line is that Maynilad can only provide 30% of the village’s consumption needs, and BFHI/BFW will still buy water in bulk. Takeover of the water supply system is not on the table at the moment. If the scheme goes through, assuming that the homeowners will agree to the unconscionable rate, it should come with a prayer that BFHI/BFW will not refuse to pay its bills in the future as it did in 2001.
The solution to the problem is ultimately in the hands of the homeowners association with the cooperation of BFHI/BFW which the HLURB can help in forging without the attendant politics.
