By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz 

A COMMUNITY in the small town of Danao in Bohol is among many countryside areas in the Philippines where there is water service up to the household level, but supply is limited to just a few hours per day under the best of circumstances.     

Resident Gonzala T. Bacotcot, whose own faucet had been broken, goes over to a neighbor to collect 10 buckets of water daily between 5 to 8 a.m. when the supply pipes are open.    

“I pay our neighbors P100 monthly,” she said. 

But when it rains, such as in recent weeks due to a low pressure area, Ms. Bacotcot said they had to wait for three days until clear and potable water from the river could be distributed.   

Improving access to such a most basic need in a sustainable manner is among the overarching objectives of a proposed law that will consolidate the country’s water resource management through the creation of a Department of Water Resources.   

The measure will be on the priority table when Congress resumes next week, with grueling discussions expected given the myriad of issues relating to water sourcing, distribution, sanitation, flood management, and irrigation, among others.  

Around 32 bills were filed at the House of Representatives to create a department that will provide oversight to all water-related issues. It is currently pending at the committee on government reorganization.  

Albay Rep. Jose Ma. Clemente S. Salceda, author of one of the bills, said the proposed measure will create an “umbrella department” that integrates all stages of water resource management.  

“There is currently no water regulatory system to speak of. Power and authority is scattered in some cases, (overlapping) in others, and is vague or even non-existent in other areas,” Mr. Salceda said in a Viber message.  

Among the existing agencies involved in the water sector are: the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and Local Water Utilities Administration as regulators; National Irrigation Administration; the Laguna Lake Development Authority; and several bureaus under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Public Works and Highways.   

Local governments are also involved in their respective water districts, which are effectively set up as cooperatives.   

Guillermo Q. Tabios III, professor emeritus of the University of the Philippines Institute of Civil Engineering, said the proposed water department is necessary as it would harmonize land and coastal resources, including the control of water-related hazards.  

“The job of the (proposed) Department of Water Resources is to integrate and oversee among the various water sub-sectors to optimally plan, design and operate the natural or physical water resources recognizing the possible conflicting, competing or complementary uses of water,” Mr. Tabios said via email.   

Campaign group Water for the People Network (WPN), however, cautioned that deliberations for establishing a water department should have a clear direction as to the future of the sector, particularly the provision of water services in remote areas.   

Reginald S. Vallejos, WPN spokesperson, said via Messenger chat, “We wish the issue were as simple as whether decentralized or consolidated water supply management will be more effective.”  

“The objective must be clear first. Is it to ensure safe efficient accessible affordable water for the public or to ensure return on investment or profits for the private sector involved in the operations?” he said.  

Terry L. Ridon, a public investment analyst and convenor of think tank Infrawatch PH, said several water districts across the country are already being privatized through joint venture arrangements.   

“The actual privatization of water districts can in fact be made a provision in the proposed Department of Water, if this is the wisdom of Congress. However, any attempt at privatization should be reckoned with the actual track record of private water firms entering into joint ventures with water districts,” Mr. Ridon told BusinessWorld via email.  

Mr. Ridon noted that with or without such a department, “water tariff rates will always remain subject to market forces if public participation is limited only to consultations and regulatory approvals are typically assured.”  

He said that if passed into law, the department must focus on “conserving and developing water resources with a focus on environment protection and social acceptance” by its consumers in their respective areas.  

Mr. Ridon also pointed out potential policy conflicts in creating a new department while the administration is “seeking to rightsize government.”  

Mr. Salceda said a technical working group in Congress is tasked to consolidate the water department bills. 

In the meantime, Ms. Bacotcot and her family in Danao will just have to contend with the struggles of limited and unreliable water supply.

A FARMERS group denounced the government’s importation plan for agricultural goods, saying the entry of onions, rice, and sugar from other countries to increase supply has not been effective in bringing down prices.    

“Importation is a solution for the lazy,” the Kilusang Mambubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said in Filipino in a statement on Monday as they, along with consumer and other advocacy groups, held a protest outside the Department of Agriculture head office in Quezon City.  

“What we should strengthen is local food production, not importation,” KMP said.  

The group cited that while onion prices have dropped to P340 to P550 per kilogram (/k), this is still higher than the P250/k retail price suggested by the government. Refined sugar prices range from P90-P100/k, while egg prices are at P8-P10 a piece. 

“It seems that egg prices will end up costing P20 first than a kilogram of rice,” the group said, citing a campaign promise made by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to bring the staple’s price to P20/k under his administration.  

On Jan. 6, Mr. Marcos approved the importation of over 22,000 metric tons of onions, supposedly to meet high demand and pull-down prices. The Bureau of Plant Industry said 12,417 metric tons of rice arrived in the country during the first week of 2023, while the Agriculture department talked of plans to import 64,050 metric tons of sugar.  

KMP said the country actually has enough onion supply, but smugglers and cartels are manipulating market supply and prices.  

“Significant agricultural subsidies and other forms of support to onion growers like access to markets, free and public cold storage facilities, to name a few, could have mitigated the cartel abuse in onions,” the group said. 

The Senate has started investigations on soaring onion prices while the House of Representatives will conduct its own probe next week. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz 

THE METRO Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has returned a P1.2-billion fund it received from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) without the necessary approvals, a lawmaker said on Monday. 

Senior Deputy Minority Leader Paul R. Daza, who was one of the lawmakers present in the House investigation on the alleged illegal transfer of funds for the government’s free WiFi program in the capital region, said the amount has been remitted to the Bureau of the Treasury. 

National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon confirmed the statement on Monday.   

“MMDA gave us two checks, P500 million and P600 million last December… Currently recorded as trust per MMDA request,” Ms. De Leon said in a Viber message.    

Mr. Daza said the return of the fund was “another win for the Filipino taxpayers.” 

The DICT was provided P12 billion for the Free WiFi for All Program, from which it allocated P3 billion to the MMDA without approval from Congress or the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).   

During a Dec. 6 joint committee hearing, former DICT acting secretary Emmanuel Rey R. Caintic admitted to signing a contract and checks worth P500 million and P600 million. The fund was for the MMDA’s P1.1-billion project for Metro Manila’s fiber optic backbone development.  

In that same meeting, DBM officials said they did not provide any written consent for the interagency fund transfer.  

Mr. Daza said the House and the DBM should monitor interagency fund transfers more closely.  

“I am aware that it is being done every now and then. However, there should be clearer guidelines and accountability,” he said.  

Mr. Daza also called on the DICT to fast-track the rollout of the free WiFi program, noting that it was provided an additional P2.5 billion in this year’s budget.  

“The neediest communities in far-flung barangays are still waiting to be connected, especially through the free WiFi program,” he said. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz