THE Cebu City Government has the power to appoint but not to remove members of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) board, the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) has said, amid the squabble among three groups of board of directors of the water utility.
OGCC Government Corporate Counsel Rogelio Quevedo told SunStar Cebu Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023, that this was clearly stated in Presidential Decree 198, so technically, the power to remove lies only with the board of directors (BOD) itself given there is just cause for the removal.
He said under PD 198, the local executive has the appointing authority and in the case of MCWD with multiple cities and municipalities under its franchise, the power was given to the Cebu City Government as the water district was first established to serve the constituents of Cebu City.
“Normally, the general law is that the power to appoint includes the power to remove; however, it was made clear under PD 198, the local government unit which in this case is Cebu City and also ruled by the Supreme Court, it has the appointing authority; however, there was no power in the LGU to remove the members of the board of directors of MCWD,” Quevedo said.
He said the authority of the LGU to appoint ends after the appointment.
Therefore, he said, PD 198 made an exemption to the provision in the general law that “the power to appoint includes the power to remove” in the case of MCWD, granting autonomy to the water district.
OGCC acts as the statutory legal counsel of government corporations including the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) and MCWD.
Quevedo said that with this current squabble among three BODs of MCWD, only the court now can decide who among the individuals claiming a seat on MCWD’s board should be recognized as the real members of the board of directors.
The first board includes those appointed by then Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña in 2016 or 2018 (chairman Joel Mari Yu, vice chairman Ralph Sevilla, Augustus Pe Jr. and Cecilia Adlawan). Procopio Fernandez was in that board but was appointed ahead of them, during an earlier term of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.
The second board includes appointees of the late mayor Edgardo Labella (Jose Daluz III, Miguelito Pato and Jodelyn May Seno), whom Labella installed to replace the first board that he had sacked for poor performance.
The third board is led by retired major general Melquiades Feliciano appointed by Rama last Oct. 31.
Just lender
In the case of LWUA’s plan to intervene and appoint an interim board of MCWD, Quevedo said that LWUA functions as a lending corporation for the water district, hence it has no authority to intervene or remove MCWD’s board of directors unless there is a concern over the financial capability of the water district to repay its loan.
LWUA can only appoint a sixth member that will oversee the financial capability of the water district to pay back its loan to LWUA. Quevedo said MCWD has a P12 million loan from LWUA.
Resolution 35
LWUA Administrator Vincente Homer Revil said LWUA board of trustees chairman Ronnie Ong’s Resolution 35 about LWUA’s intervention and establishment of an interim board of MCWD was hastily proposed and approved without prior legal and technical review.
In a statement sent to SunStar Cebu on Wednesday evening, Nov. 8, Revil said that in a board of trustees meeting on Sept. 28, Ong “hastily” included Resolution 35 in the agenda while the meeting was in motion.
Revil expressed his reservations on the presentation of the resolution during the board meeting as it did not follow the protocol of advance submission prior to the board meeting.
Revil said water districts are “autonomous agencies” independent of local governments, referring to the validity of Mayor Rama’s appointment of three new directors of MCWD last Oct. 31.
Rama removed Daluz, Pato and Seno as the chairman and members of the BOD, respectively, and replaced them with Feliciano as the new chairman, and Aristotle Batuhan and Nelson Yuvallos as members, while Earl Bonachita and Danilo Ortiz remained as members of the board.
Revil said it was in the best interests of any water district to be “allowed to operate without the hindrance and interference from the local officials.”
Resolution 35 refers to the decision of the LWUA’s board of trustees to partially intervene in the operations of MCWD and appoint an interim or temporary BOD after the board of trustees saw the water district as “erring and problematic.”
Revil told SunStar Cebu that the resolution of the board was not finalized, nor could it be executed.
“Subsequently, the Board Resolution 35 that was written by the private staff of Chairman Ronnie Ong was only signed by two out of five members of the board of trustees, which is not a majority,” Revil said.
Last Monday, Ong told SunStar Cebu in a statement that the LWUA board was disappointed with the delayed implementation of Resolution 35, which he described as “swiftly” passed and adopted by the board.
Ong said the board gave seven days to the LWUA Office of the Administrator under Revil to enact the resolution from its approval on Sept.28, yet it remained unexecuted.
LGU’s limitation
In his response letter dated Oct. 17 to the Cebu City Government’s request for a “Certificate of No Objection” from LWUA in relation to the removal and appointment of new MCWD directors, Revil reiterated that Section 7 of PD 198, specifically expressed that upon forming of the water district, the LGU lost its ownership, supervision and control, or any right whatsoever over the district.
However, he told SunStar Cebu last Wednesday that several memorandums of the Department of the Interior and Local Government expressed that the LGUs must provide full support and assistance to the water district.
With the Opinion 223 of the OGCC, Revil added Wednesday that LWUA’s intervention in water districts can be valid only if the following are met: (a) the water district is indebted and unable to meet the payments to LWUA; (b) a valid and lawful order from Civil Service Commission; and (c) a valid and lawful order from the Office of the Ombudsman.
“None of these conditions are present in the issue of the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD),” he said.
Not a concern
In an episode of Cebu City’s online program “Ingna’ng Mayor” on Thursday, Nov. 9, Rama said his stand on the MCWD situation was that the “power to appoint goes with the power to remove.”
He also questioned the authority of Revil to issue the Oct. 17 reply-letter to the City Government denying its request for a “Certificate of No Objection” to the removal of Daluz, Pato and Seno, without the LWUA board of trustees’ approval.
Rama told SunStar Cebu that he does not want to get involved in the internal conflict inside the LWUA, nor was it the concern of his administration.
He urged the LWUA to settle their conflict themselves.
“That is not my concern; that is their concern.”
Rama said he has already made a decision and he cannot wait for LWUA to issue a decision on the matter as the City Hall was focused more on resolving the problems of the water district,
With the contrasting decision of LWUA’s board of trustees and its Office of the Administrator on Resolution 35 favoring the removal of Daluz, Pato and Seno from the MCWD Board and providing an interim board, Rama denied involvement or influence over the decision.
“I do not even want to think about that LWUA exists, if they cannot solve the problem, so I will solve it for them,” Rama said.
The mayor stressed the importance of delivering safe, clean and affordable water to his constituents through an efficient infrastructure and policy under the leadership of the new board.
“The show must go on, a new MCWD set of board with the chairman, and they are now having a meeting and they should continue having a meeting and prioritize, looking after clean, affordable, effective, efficient availability of water,” Rama said.
In the case of the earlier decision of the new MCWD board regarding the halting of the ongoing procurement and bidding of the water district’s pipeline projects, Rama assured the proponents of these projects that the purpose of the review is only to ensure that their investment was “well-accounted.”
Nov. 8, Revil said that in a board of trustees meeting on Sept. 28, Ong “hastily” included Resolution 35 in the agenda while the meeting was in motion.
Revil expressed his reservations on the presentation of the resolution during the board meeting as it did not follow the protocol of advance submission prior to the board meeting.
Revil said water districts are “autonomous agencies” independent of local governments, referring to the validity of Mayor Rama’s appointment of three new directors of MCWD last Oct. 31.
Rama removed Daluz, Pato and Seno as the chairman and members of the BOD, respectively, and replaced them with Feliciano as the new chairman, and Aristotle Batuhan and Nelson Yuvallos as members, while Earl Bonachita and Danilo Ortiz remained as members of the board.
Revil said it was in the best interests of any water district to be “allowed to operate without the hindrance and interference from the local officials.”
Resolution 35 refers to the decision of the LWUA’s board of trustees to partially intervene in the operations of MCWD and appoint an interim BOD after the board of trustees saw the water district as “erring and problematic.”
Revil told SunStar Cebu that the resolution of the board was not finalized, nor could it be executed.
“Subsequently, the Board Resolution 35 that was written by the private staff of Chairman Ronnie Ong was only signed by two out of five members of the board of trustees, which is not a majority,” Revil said.
Last Monday, Ong told SunStar Cebu in a statement that the LWUA board was disappointed with the delayed implementation of Resolution 35, which he described as “swiftly” passed and adopted by the board.
Ong said the board gave seven days to the LWUA Office of the Administrator under Revil to enact the resolution from its approval on Sept.28, yet it remained unexecuted.
LGU’s limitation
In his response letter dated Oct. 17 to the Cebu City Government’s request for a “Certificate of No Objection” from LWUA in relation to the removal and appointment of new MCWD directors, Revil reiterated that Section 7 of PD 198, specifically expressed that upon forming of the water district, the LGU lost its ownership, supervision and control, or any right whatsoever over the district.
However, he told SunStar Cebu last Wednesday that several memorandums of the Department of the Interior and Local Government expressed that the LGUs must provide full support and assistance to the water district.
With Opinion 223 of the OGCC, Revil added Wednesday that LWUA’s intervention in water districts can be valid only if the following are met: (a) the water district is indebted and unable to meet the payments to LWUA; (b) a valid and lawful order from Civil Service Commission; and (c) a valid and lawful order from the Office of the Ombudsman.
“None of these conditions are present in the issue of the Metro Cebu Water District,” he said.
Not a concern
In an episode of Cebu City’s online program “Ingna’ng Mayor” on Thursday, Nov. 9, Rama said his stand on the MCWD situation was that the “power to appoint goes with the power to remove.”
He also questioned the authority of Revil to issue the Oct. 17 reply-letter to the City Government denying its request for a “Certificate of No Objection” to the removal of Daluz, Pato and Seno, without the LWUA board of trustees’ approval.
Rama told SunStar Cebu that he does not want to get involved in the internal conflict inside the LWUA, nor was it the concern of his administration.
Rama said he has already made a decision and he cannot wait for LWUA to issue a decision on the matter as the City Hall was focused more on resolving the problems of the water district,
With the contrasting decision of LWUA’s board of trustees and its Office of the Administrator on Resolution 35 favoring the removal of Daluz, Pato and Seno from the MCWD board and providing an interim board, Rama denied involvement or influence in the decision.
The mayor stressed the importance of delivering safe, clean and affordable water to his constituents through an efficient infrastructure and policy under the leadership of the new board.
“The show must go on, a new MCWD set of board with the chairman, and they are now having a meeting and they should continue having a meeting and prioritize, looking after clean, affordable, effective, efficient availability of water,” Rama said.
As for the decision of the new MCWD board to halt procurement and bidding for MCWD’s projects, Rama assured the project proponents that the purpose of the review is only to ensure that their investment is “well-accounted.”