Workers’ union strike set

The employee union of the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) said it will hold a daily strike beginning Monday, February 15 due to irregularities inside the utility.

The “peaceful mass action” of the First Labor Organization of COWD (Flow) will be directed on the water district’s own board of directors, its interim general manager, and the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), said Engineer Antonio Young, the union president.

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Young said the daily protest—complete with placards and loudspeakers—will only be held during the employees’ noontime break so as not to disrupt the water firm’s normal operations.

“But it will be done everyday, on weekdays. And we have no timetable, which means this could go on until the problems at COWD are fully resolved,” the Flow president told the Sun.Star. “We just couldn’t take what’s happening at our own water district now.”

Flow—numbering nearly 400—had earlier scored the water firm’s board of directors for ousting COWD acting general manager Bienvenido Batar for “flimsy” reasons, suspecting that the latter’s removal was connected to the allegedly onerous water supply contracts that members of the board have been pushing.

The employees also questioned LWUA for skewing its own rules by approving the board’s request to have Batar removed and appointing an interim general manager, whom they accuse of worsening the water utility’s internal rift—instead of offering solutions.

At the core of Flow’s grievances are the two water supply contracts—one already signed and currently implemented and the other still on the pipeline—that it say are both disadvantageous to the cash-strapped water firm.

And because all key management officials at COWD have taken position against these onerous contracts, the labor group believes this was the reason why Batar was replaced by interim general manager Proceso Pag-ong, Jr. 

In a series of letters to LWUA late last year, Flow questioned the appointment of Pag-ong and accused the agency of ignoring its own rules to justify Batar’s removal.

The union cited a portion of published LWUA guidelines, which states: “Before any intervention can occur, the LWUA shall first conduct an assessment or an audit of the water district to determine precisely the existence and cause of the problem or deficiency. Thereafter, a full report will be submitted to the water district concerned, giving it an appropriate time frame to solve the problem or correct the deficiency.”

Flow said no such assessment or audit was done and that LWUA made shortcuts when it hastily appointed Pag-ong last November.

“We believe there was no assessment done prior to the entry of Engr. Pag-ong” since the latter reported to work “barely or less than 15 working days” after the board’s request was made,” Flow said in its letter.

Flow also questioned Pag-ong’s performance in office, noting that the latter was required by the same LWUA guidelines to “resolve” the crisis at the water district—they very reason why an IGM was appointed in the first place.

With this, Flow said its members could only surmise that Pag-ong’s questionable entry into the water district ad something to do with the anomalous Bulk Water Supply Project (BWSP), which state auditors say is tainted with fraud and riddled with onerous provisions, and the proposed water supply contract that entails the construction of a multi-million water reservoir.

Batar and other COWD managers are opposed to the second water supply contract with the Rio Verde Water Consortium Inc. (RVWCI) because it would bleed the ailing water utility further. COWD’s properties were once garnished by the Internal Revenue for its unpaid taxes.

In November last year, the fraud division of the Commission on Audit reported that RVWCI had never been a qualified bidder at the outset, and that Cowd officials had awarded the BWSP contract under anomalous circumstances, including its subsequent revisions that made it disadvantageous to the water utility and the taxpaying public. (DVAIII)