PRESIDENT Duterte on Monday threatened to have the businessmen behind the two water concessionaires—Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala for Manila Water Co. and Manuel V. Pangilinan for Maynilad Water Services Inc.—arrested for “non-bailable” offenses of syndicated estafa or plunder, saying he would love to see billionaires in jail.
Duterte said he won’t be letting go of this “issue of corruption” as this would be his “last shot” at life.
“Two years, I’ll be out. So these two years, I will use this for the people. You are asking, ‘Where’s the big fish? Where’s corruption?’… I will deliver to you now: Ayala and Pangilinan,” he said in a speech while visiting earthquake victims in M’lang, Cotabato.
“If those f****** commit a mistake, I will have them arrested. Look at them, when I insulted them, they are not responding anymore. That’s for sure. Syndicated estafa,” he added.
Manila Water is a publicly listed company and a subsidiary of Ayala Corp., while businessman Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) owns a controlling stake in Maynilad.
Despite Cabinet members telling him to negotiate the contracts, Duterte argued that there is nothing to negotiate as the contracts were already “null and void” from the very beginning.
“Because in that contract, the Philippines agreed to waive sovereignty. You cannot do it. And the tax‚corporate income tax, they will pass it on to consumers.
That’s a rip-off,” he said.
Sought to clarify the President’s statement, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said they have yet to find out what the President wants to do with the agreements with the water concessionaires after the Cabinet meeting on January 6.
“This matter is in the agenda for the Cabinet meeting on January 6. The OSG [Office of the Solicitor General] will present a new government version of the water concession agreements, with inputs from the MWSS [Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System], OGCC [Office of the Government Corporate Counsel], and DOJ [Department of Justice]. The DOF [Department of Finance] will also provide inputs on the financial aspect,” Guevarra said in a text message to BusinessMirror.
Just sell, Lopezes told
With three months left before the franchise of local broadcast network ABS-CBN expires, Duterte on Monday advised owners of the TV giant to just sell the network.
“Itong ABS, mag-expire ang contract ninyo. Mag-renew kayo, ewan ko lang kung may mangyari diyan. Kung ako sa inyo, ipagbili niyo na ‘yan [This ABS-CBN, your contract is about to expire. If you ask for a renewal, I don’t know what’s going to happen. If I were you, I would just sell it],” Duterte said in a speech in North Cotabato.
“Kasi ang mga Pilipino ngayon lang makaganti sa inyong kalokohan [Because it’s only now that Filipinos can seek redress for your misconduct]. I will make sure that you will remember this episode of our times forever,” he added.
On December 4, Duterte said he is bent on not granting the renewal of the 25-year congressional franchise to ABS-CBN, still irked by the network’s supposed bias including alleged unfair reports about him and failure to run his paid political advertisements during the 2016 presidential race.
He said he would not change his mind, despite the news outfit’s persistence to come to him “begging.”
Unless the Congress grants its renewal, ABS-CBN’s franchise is set to expire on March 30, 2020.
Several bills have been filed at the House of Representatives, seeking the renewal of the ABS-CBN congressional franchise.
A congressional franchise bill needs to be first approved by the House before it can be transmitted to the Senate.
Once approved by both chambers, it will be submitted to the President to be signed into law. Duterte, however, has the power to veto bills that Congress approves.
Radio and television broadcast firms in the country are required to seek a franchise from Congress, pursuant to Republic Act 3846.
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar, however, said ABS-CBN still has other options, should it fail to renew its congressional franchise.
“I’m sure ABS-CBN can find a way how to distribute their content if they lose their franchise,” Andanar said.
Rival TV5 has indicated it is open to the notion of having the Lopezes, owners of the network, to buy block airtime at TV5 and air their content there, but Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of TV5’s parent firm, denied they were selling their network to the Lopezes.
Wawa, Kaliwa
In a related development, the President in another speech on Monday also said he will order authorities to go ahead with the Wawa Bulk Water Supply Project as well as the controversial Kaliwa Dam projects, but vowed to pay and relocate the locals who will be affected by the construction.
“I can give you a little bit of elbow room to move. Those who are living there, of course, they are all natives and they are trying to delay the project. We need water,” Duterte said in a speech in Digos City on Monday. “Without Wawa and Kaliwa Dam….this will be the last resort to have water for Manila. I will order them to go ahead.”
The construction of the Chinese-funded P12.2-billion New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project has been opposed by environment groups, citing the damage it will pose to the Sierra Madre and its biodiversity, as well as the displacement of the Dumagat indigenous tribes.
The Kaliwa Dam is also a 600 million liter per day water reservoir project in Rizal and Quezon.
On the other hand, the Wawa Bulk Water Supply Project, a joint venture between billionaire Enrique Razon’s Prime Infra and businessman Oscar Violago’s San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders Group, is eyed to supply 80 million liters per day of water in 2021 and more than 500 million liters per day in 2025.
The President has been lambasting the water concessionaires after the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in Singapore ordered Manila to pay east zone concessionaire Manila Water P7.4 billion for the nonimplementation of water-rate increases that occurred prior to his presidency. The PCA had also ruled on a similar case filed by west zone concessionaire Maynilad, ordering the State to pay P3.4 billion for Maynilad’s losses from March 2015 to August 2016.
The water concessionaires have since said they will no longer seek payment for the arbitral award from the government.
https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/12/31/duterte-threatens-to-arrest-water-tycoons-tells-abs-cbn-to-sell/
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