Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8) — Members of Bayan Muna were at the gates of companies providing water for Metro Manila households on Friday to protest an impending increase in rates.
Maynilad and Manila Water, located in a joint compound in Quezon City, will increase water rates starting April 22 due to adjustments in the Foreign Currency Differential Adjustment (FCDA) and inflation.
Bayan Muna member Carl Ala said the government should be the one managing the water services and other public utilities.
“Sa tingin namin hindi talaga dapat pina-privatized yung mga public utilities katulad ng MRT and LRT…dapat ‘yan the government should control that and ‘yung end goal is have better service ng mamamayan,” Ala said.
[Translation: Public utilities like the trains should not be privatized…the government should take control and the end goal is have better service for the people.]
Ala added water rates go up when the peso weakens, but do not go down when the peso strengthens.
“Ang ginagamit nilang rason sa ngayon, halimbawa yung FCDA na kung saan pag tumaas ang dollar, mapapansinin natin na taas kaagad ang singil sa tubig. Pero kapag bumababa naman yung dollar, hindi naman ‘yan nag-rereflect o bumababa yung singil sa tubig,” he said.
[Translation: They are reasoning out, for example the FCDA where the dollar appreciates, they increase the water rate immediately. However, when the dollar depreciates, it doesn’t reflect on the water rate.]
“Kami ay kumukonsumo sa loob ng 15 days nasa tatlong daan, so madadagdag na ito aabot ito sa limang daan so yung dalawang daan na additional doon sa amin budget ay malaking kawalan,” Ala added.
[Translation:We consume about ₱300 in 15 days, so this will then increase to ₱500, which will be a big dent on our budget.]
In a statement, Maynilad gave the following breakdown for the rate increases:
Customers consuming 10 cubic meters or less every month will see their water bill increase by ₱2.60 from ₱115.88 to ₱118.48
Those consuming 20 cubic meters every month will see their water bill increase from ₱434.04 to ₱443.81
Households consuming 30 cubic meters a month will note an increase of ₱19.96 in their water bill, from the current ₱885.99 to ₱905.95.
Meanwhile, Manila Water consumers can expect the following rate increases:
Those consuming 30 cubic meters can expect a monthly increase of ₱8.19, translating to ₱608.18 from the previous ₱599.59.
A 4.19-peso increase would be imposed to those consuming 20 cubic meters, paying around ₱298.70 monthly.
Customers consuming 10 cubic meters will experience ₱1.91 increase, except for the lifeline customers or those coming from low-income families and living in areas identified as safe from the price hikes, as part of the company’s pro-poor policy.
Manila Water Corporate Strategic Affairs Group Head Jeric Sevilla explained how the FCDA affected the price hike.
“If you are going to add up reduction of ₱55, plus the increase of ₱47, that has a net of a reduction of 0.8 centavos. Now, we go to the third one which is the Foreign Currency Differential Adjustment,” he said. “The Foreign Currency Differential Adjustment is a corrective mechanism allowed by the concession agreement that accounts for the fluctuation in foreign exchange.”
Sevilla said there was a need to implement the FCDA due to the steady depreciation of the peso in the past months — which now hovers at ₱50 to the dollar.
He added the last FCDA was implemented in the third quarter of 2016.
For Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) Vice Chairman and Board Member Reynaldo Velasco, the screening process behind the decision to allow the price adjustment under the routing quarterly review was favorable.
Sevilla cited the need of water companies to carry out expansion and maintenance work, as well as pay off the debt from the MWSS when the water service became a public-private partnership, giving rise to Manila Water and Maynilad.
CNN Philippines’ digital producers Ver Marcelo and Patricia Garcia contributed to this report.
