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Vice
President Noli de Castro must be quite pleased with
himself these days. To most of the 80,000 residents of
BF Homes Inc. (BFHI), he is a hero of sorts. He was,
after all, the only government official who cared enough
to seek and provide a solution to their water-supply
problem, which has been plaguing the subdivision for the
past 22 years.
Indeed,
it was “Kabayang Noli” who, in his capacity as chairman
of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB),
seemed to have found a brilliant way to end their water
problem. His solution, which was loudly cheered by the
subdivision residents, was simply to let the
Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) take
control of the operations of the Philippine Waterworks
and Construction Corp. (PWCC), the subdivision’s water
concessionaire.
He even
found what he thought was the legal justification for
such a government move, Presidential Decree 1345, which
was later buttressed by an enabling directive from
Malacañang, Executive Order 688. So now it seems
everything is in place for the takeover, which the
subdivision residents see as the beginning of the end of
their suffering.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look that way at all. Not by a
long shot. First of all, the takeover may not happen
because its legality is so questionable even a college
freshman can see the flaw right away. A petition for a
temporary restraining order and a permanent writ of
injunction has been filed by BFHI and the PWCC against
the MWSS and HLURB before the regional trial court of
Las Piñas.
BFHI and
the PWCC contend that the government cannot just take
over a privately owned facility without paying just
compensation to the owners. The legal term, I believe,
is “expropriation,” and “expropriation” always implies
just compensation.
In its
petition, BFHI argues that the whole scheme carried out
by the HLURB to help BF Homes residents solve their
water-supply problem is based on PD 1345 and EO 688. The
constitutionality or legality of both is questionable
when tested against the vested rights of BFHI and its
private water concessionaire.
“No act
shall be valid, however nobly intentioned, if it
conflicts with the Constitution. . . . Expediency must
not be allowed to sap its strength nor greed for power
to debase its rectitude.”
Assuming
the government can successfully defend its legal
position in this case, it will still take a long time
before the legal questions posed by the petitioners are
finally resolved. Such questions have a way of going all
the way up to the Supreme Court; the legal processes
could take years.
This
means BF residents still have a long way to go before
they come to the edge of that proverbial cool spring
that has eluded them for many years. De Castro’s
intentions may have been noble, but from the looks of
it, he has only succeeded in raising false hopes, or
foisting on them a mirage.
In the
beginning, BF Homes residents didn’t have any
water-supply problems. The residents had, in fact, a
reliable supply system for about 15 years because of an
extensive waterworks system put in place by the
developers. Under that system, water was being fed from
eight deep wells to two big reservoirs from which a
network of distribution pipes 108,125 meters long criss-crossed
the 765-hectare enclave.
With
such an infrastructure, who was to think the supply
would one day dry up? It was in the late 1960s, I think,
when home lots were selling like hotcakes. I know this
because my family was one of the early settlers in that
subdivision.
It
wasn’t long before all available residential spaces were
sold out. As early as 1973, developer BF Homes
Inc.—which the late Tomas Aguirre, patriarch of Banco
Filipino, founded—sought a certificate of public
convenience (CPC) from the then-Board of Power and
Waterworks (BPW). The franchise was approved, but only
after 10 years of dawdling on the part of the BPW.
Despite the absence of a CPC, however, BFHI didn’t
hesitate to fully finance the upkeep of the system.
In its
petition, BFHI acknowledged that the efficiency of the
waterworks system began to deteriorate in 1985, or 23
years ago, after the central bank ordered the illegal
closure of the Aguirre-owned Banco Filipino (January 25,
1985).
Despite
this takeover, however, BFHI did what it could to
somehow ensure the supply of water to its residents
through the purchase of water in bulk. After a while,
the PWCC couldn’t keep up the bulk-water purchases
because it wasn’t allowed by the government to increase
its rates to residents in tandem with the procurement
rate. After that, BF residents were left to themselves
to procure their own water.
The BFHI
said in its petition that instead of allowing the
arbitrary takeover of the subdivision’s waterworks
system, the government should simply facilitate the
interrupted negotiations with the MWSS for the sale of
water in bulk to the subdivision residents.
Vice
President de Castro, meanwhile, should hire brighter
legal consultants.
Omerta_bdc@yahoo.com |
