PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte should have thought it well, eradicating the illegal drugs problem should also require a law enforcement that has no stain of malice and flaws. And now it has come to this, and Philippine Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa was reduced to a helpless commander, who can’t contain erring police and worse, appears to be letting it pass by.
Duterte’s orders for a shoot-to-kill in police operations may not exactly carried over the way it should be, mainly because it remain vague and incoherent to how the police in the lower ranks translate it. To some, it is a license to become trigger-happy. It does even boosted the police’s morale when he promised to protect the police who has killed suspected criminals.
The death of a 17-year-old boy, Kian, and other underage innocent victims who became casualties of the War on Drugs should serve as a stinging reminder that there needs a review, a top priority, on how should the police and this current administration address in fighting illegal drugs without bloodshed; more so, the anger was further induced when billions-worth of illegal drugs seized at the Bureau of Customs, which has initial links with the president’s son, undergoes with less punitive actions than those what is happening in the streets.
While the current administration is enjoying a massive support from the public, it nonetheless is becoming careless. The opposition, the critics, might be in a marginalized number. However, the continued carelessness and arrogance to the rising number of deaths - especially those who are innocent victims - could trigger a downfall. And they are always consistent until the holes they punctured grow and soon will break its foundations.
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An August 15 press release has informed the public that the Makati-based MetroPac Water Investments Corporation (MPW/MWIC) has signed a joint venture with the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) to supply and rehabilitate the supply of water to its consumers for 30 years (and renewable for another 20 years).
This can come very timely, as for quite some time now, consumers are experiencing poor quality water supply that the rainwater harvested from the roof gutters seems to be clearer and cleaner than the ones coming from the faucets.
MPW is the wholly-owned water infrastructure investment subsidiary of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) – that claims to be the leading infrastructure holding company in the Philippines. MPW was incorporated and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on August 19, 2011.
MPW has also ventured with other regional water districts such as in Bacolod and Iloilo Cities.
However, in October 2016, the ad-hoc committee of the Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa) has recommended to the Board of Directors to reject the “unsolicited” joint venture proposal made by MPW citing “lack of due diligence and feasibility study.” The stakeholders also had a notion that the venture with MPW may mean a transition to “privatization” of water facilities.
However, this was earlier clarified by MPW/MWIC, saying that it is more of a public-private partnership and that there were no selling of assets. This was settled by the corporation’s spokesperson, Amarylis Josephine Castro in July 2016 in a report where MPW and Metro Iloilo Water District.
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