MAYOR JOSE S. Espinosa III of Iloilo City is considering filing charges against members of the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) who were appointed by the Iloilo provincial governor. “All of their appointments are void from the very beginning. They should not be there. They should have resigned in the first place,” Mr. Espinosa said on Friday. He said he plans to charge them for “overstaying” and “illegally receiving salaries” following the Supreme Court decision nullifying Section 3 (b) of Presidential Decree 198 that gives the governor the power to appoint the water distributor’s board of directors. On July 19, the MIWD board filed seven criminal and administrative charges against the mayor before the Office of the Ombudsman for appointing a new set of directors. The Espinosa-appointed board has yet to be confirmed by the Local Water Utilities Administration. The mayor said he is ready to face the charges, asserting that he is only “reclaiming the rights of Iloilo City,” whose residents, he added, have long “suffered from the lack of adequate water supply. The five incumbent members of the MIWD board appointed by Iloilo Gov. Arthur D. Defensor Sr. are Juanito Acanto, Josephine Abad-Caram, Dr. Jessica Salas, Teodoro Robles, and Ramon Cua-Locsin. — Louine Hope U. Conserva

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