Tuesday, December 23, 2008 Mactan Rock plans to end supply contract
MACTAN Island may run out of water 12 days from now if Mactan Rock Industries Inc. will make good its threat to stop supplying water to the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) for its alleged refusal to honor the renewal clause of their contract.
In a letter to MCWD General Manager Arman-do Paredes dated Dec. 18, 2008, Mactan Rock president Lito Maderazo said that because MCWD will not renew the contract under the same terms and conditions, “we are now left with no other recourse but to signify to you that we cannot extend the term of the contract for one year or much less, on quarterly basis.”
“We will not proceed to offer our facility to other interested parties who need our services and that we will cease the water supply to your company (MCWD) on Jan. 6, 2009,” Maderazo said in his letter to Paredes.
“We must trust that you will respect our decision as much as we respect your decision not to exercise the renewal clause of our contract,” Maderazo added.
Reasons
In the same letter, Maderazo told Paredes that they offered to renew the contract for another 10 years under the same terms and conditions to help the company meet its mandate to supply the water needs of Mactan.
“It is very clear to us that you are not willing to exercise the renewal clause of our contract, which will expire on Jan. 6, 2009, for reasons we cannot understand,” Made-razo said.
Maderazo told Sun.Star Cebu that Mactan Rock’s output is 5,000 to 6,000 cubic meters of water daily.
He said that Mactan Rock is willing to renew the contract under the same terms and conditions but MCWD officials refused to do so, saying the agreement needs to pass public bidding.
But Maderazo said that MCWD’s position is confusing because it also offered to renew the contract for a year.
“If the contract cannot be renewed, why are they offering to renew it for one year only? If they are just buying time for MCWD to look for another supplier, we will also buy time to find other customers,” Maderazo said.
He added that the refusal of MCWD source water from Mactan Rock is detrimental to their stakeholders.
Sun.Star Cebu called MCWD General Manager Armando Paredes and Chairman Juan Saul Montecillo but their phones just kept ringing.
But MCWD Director Joel Yu said they will not renew the contract with Mactan Rock not because they don’t want the firm’s water but because some provisions of the contract need to be revised as these are not anymore applicable at present.
Yu added that it is also the policy of MCWD to ensure all projects, which involve the private sector, will be undertaken in a form of a joint venture between MCWD and the private party. (EOB)
