THE rift between the board of directors of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) and Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has been grabbing the headlines for the past days, but this is not the first time that a conflict between the MCWD board and the City has occurred. Even the events leading to the appointment of Jose Daluz III as member of the MCWD board by the late mayor Edgardo Labella was tainted by controversy.
Here are some of the significant events involving the leadership of the MCWD, from Labella’s dismissal of the old board -- then composed of chairman Joel Mari Yu, vice chairman Ralph Sevilla, Augustus Pe Jr., Procopio Fernandez, and Cecilia Adlawan -- in 2019, which led to the appointment of Daluz, to the latest appointment of Melquiades Feliciano as chairman of the new board by Rama.
September 2019: Seven of eight local government units (LGUs) within MCWD’s franchise areas and the Cebu Provincial Board passed resolutions expressing their dissatisfaction with the service of MCWD.
Oct. 15, 2019: Labella terminated MCWD chairman Yu, vice chairman Sevilla, and Pe, Fernandez and Adlawan. Except for Fernandez, all the others were appointed by then mayor Tomas Osmeña during his term from 2016 to 2018.
Oct. 17, 2019: Yu and other members of the MCWD board of directors wrote a letter to Labella expressing their intent not to comply with the mayor’s dismissal order. Yu also called Labella’s termination “illegal and invalid.”
Oct. 23, 2019: The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) designated an interim board and took over MCWD “following the serious institutional crisis” at the water district. Yu stepped down as chairman of the board and then general manager Eugenio Singson Jr. resigned from his post.
Nov. 8, 2019: Sevilla, Pe and Adlawan filed a petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) and injunction against Labella and LWUA acting administrator Jeci Lapus and the interim board before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Cebu City.
Jan. 6, 2020: Labella appointed five new members of the MCWD board: former Cebu City councilor Daluz, Francisco Malilong Jr., former Cebu City mayor Alvin Garcia, Manolette Dinsay and Miguelito Pato.
Daluz replaced Adlawan to represent the professional sector. His term will end on Dec. 31, 2024.
Malilong, a SunStar Cebu columnist, replaced Yu, chairman of the old board and representative of the education sector. His term ended on Dec. 31, 2022.
Garcia replaced Fernandez to represent the women sector. His term was only until the end of December 2020.
Dinsay, the former chief legal counsel of Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, replaced Sevilla to represent the civic sector. Dinsay’s term ended on Dec. 31, 2022.
Pato represents the business sector, replacing former Cebu City councilor Pe. Pato’s term will also end on Dec. 31, 2024.
Feb. 17, 2020: Daluz was elected chairman of the board. Malilong and Pato were elected as vice chairman and secretary, respectively.
March 2020: Labella appointed Jodelyn May Seno after LWUA rejected the appointment of Garcia.
March 2021: RTC Branch 7 Judge James Steward Ramon Himalaloan reinstated Sevilla, Pe and Adlawan by virtue of a 20-day TRO.
A month after the release of the TRO, Himalaloan inhibited himself from handling the petition for injunction filed by the complainants, citing “false accusations and innuendos” made by Labella through his lawyers.
Following Labella’s death in November 2021 and Rama’s election as the new mayor of the city, the court asked Rama whether he would maintain the act of then-mayor Labella in the pending suit.
July 2022: LWUA informed the court of the death of Lapus on July 11, 2021. The Cebu City Legal Office (CLO) also submitted a manifestation on July 19, 2022, notifying the court of Labella’s death on Nov. 19, 2021, and the assumption of Vice Mayor Michael Rama as the new mayor. Rama decided to withdraw from the legal battle involving the former executives of MCWD.
Rama ordered his lawyers to manifest before the court that the City no longer has any interest in defending itself in an injunction case to reverse the decision of the late mayor Labella to terminate three MCWD board members in 2019.
August 2022: MCWD Employees Union (MEU) officers, representing around 510 permanent MCWD employees, demanded Daluz’s resignation as the water district’s chairman. The MEU rallied and presented a position paper listing reasons for Daluz’s removal: poor performance of the water utility, questionable procurements, and intervention in the hiring of employees.
September 2022: MEU officers submitted a petition to the Office of Cebu City Mayor Rama for the removal of Daluz and two other MCWD board members. The same petition was provided to LWUA, the Office of the President of the Philippines, the Office of the Ombudsman for Visayas and the Civil Service Commission.
Dec. 16, 2022: The MCWD board appointed Edgar Donoso as the new general manager of the water district. Donoso had been the acting general manager since Oct. 5, 2022 following the retirement of general manager Stephen Yee.
Dec. 31, 2022: Malilong and Dinsay’s terms ended and they were replaced by former Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu City chapter president Earl Bonachita and lawyer Danilo Ortiz. The two new board members were appointed by Rama.
May 18, 2023: Rama announced the removal of Daluz as chairman of the board and picked Pato to replace him. Special assistant to the mayor Jerone Castillo said the mayor was irked by the absence of Daluz during an emergency meeting to discuss the El Niño earlier that week.
May 22, 2023: Rama sent a demand letter to the MCWD board, asking them to submit legal formalities on the installation of Pato as the new chairman of the board. Cebu City Administrator Collin Rosell signed the letter dated May 22.
May 23, 2023: Rama met with MCWD employees, conducted a survey and confirmed their reported dissatisfaction and issues at the water district.
Rama instructed the CLO to investigate the MEU complaint. CLO then recommended the removal of Daluz. Rama approved CLO’s investigation report and sent it to LWUA, but LWUA rejected it as being outside its authority since it was a recommendation to dismiss and not an act of dismissal.
According to LWUA, the Ombudsman had “exclusive jurisdiction” over it. Daluz, Pato and Seno kept their posts.
June 2, 2023: The MCWD board, chaired by Daluz, opted to postpone deciding on Rama’s request for legal formalities related to the appointment of Pato as the new chairman, replacing Daluz.
Daluz said what probably pissed off the mayor was the MCWD board’s rejection of the proposed “privatization” of the water district and his proposal to have Rama run as congressman or senator in the next election and have younger members of their party run for higher positions, including the mayor’s seat.
June 9, 2023: The City, through its legal office, requested the Ombudsman to investigate the allegations of graft and corruption against the MCWD board. The City provided enough supporting documents for the Ombudsman to “proceed on their own actions.”
Castillo said there were at least two grounds, (1) the city government-verified concerns and petition of the MEU and the (2) opinion of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel on MCWD’s three draft joint venture agreements for its three bulk water projects in Mactan Island, for the Ombudsman to investigate the matter.
June 16, 2023: Castillo disclosed the recommendation for the removal of Daluz, Pato and Seno. This recommendation resulted from a petition for their removal submitted by the MCWD Employees Union and its executive board to the Ombudsman.
June 19, 2023: Seno revealed that Rama hosted a meeting on Feb. 16, 2023 between Prime Water Infrastructure Corp. president Fe Rebancos and some MCWD board members and technical personnel. Both Rama and PrimeWater denied the privatization allegations made by Daluz.
June 27, 2023: The new MEU held a general assembly and approved a resolution repudiating, rendering ineffective, and abandoning the former MEU’s petition filed on Sept. 21, 2022, before the Ombudsman seeking the removal of three board members.
June 29-30, 2023: The current MEU officers, headed by president Samuel Suson, filed before LWUA (June 29) and the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas (June 30) a resolution repudiating the September 2022 petition which demanded the removal of Daluz and other board members.
July 2023: The RTC Branch 17 in Cebu City dismissed the civil case filed by former MCWD board members Pe, Sevilla and Adlawan, upholding Labella’s decision to terminate their services. RTC Branch 17 Judge Anacleto Debalucos affirmed Labella’s power to remove or discipline the members of the MCWD board.
On LWUA’s power to review Labella’s decision, Debalucos ruled that Section 11 of Presidential Decree 198, as amended, grants LWUA the authority to review Labella’s decision to remove the former MCWD board members.
Aug. 1, 2023: CLO issued a notice of removal and termination against Daluz, Pato and Seno effective Aug. 17. CLO gave the MCWD management, board and LWUA a copy of the notice.
CLO also requested LWUA to issue a certificate of no objection to the termination notice.
Aug. 31, 2023: Pe, Sevilla and Adlawan filed before the Supreme Court a 78-page “petition for review on certiorari” of the lower court’s ruling.
Oct. 31, 2023: Rama appointed three new MCWD board members -- Melquiades Feliciano, Aristotle Batuhan and Nelson Yuvallos -- to replace Daluz, Pato and Seno.
Nov. 3, 2023: Feliciano said the new board issued a resolution ordering a halt to ongoing initiatives and procurement proceedings for MCWD’s bulk water projects. But Daluz said operations were proceeding as normal at the water utility.
Daluz also said Rama’s three new appointees would not be allowed to enter the MCWD building in downtown, Cebu City.
Nov. 5, 2023: Feliciano said they would hold their meetings and report to their designated office at the MCWD inside the MCWD building in Cebu City.
Nov. 6, 2023: Rama said he would use police power against Daluz, Pato and Seno if they continued to refuse to step down from office.
Nov. 7, 2023: MCWD received the letter from LWUA Administrator Vicente Homer Revil addressed to Castillo dated Oct. 17, turning down the City’s request for an issuance of a certificate of no objection to its recommendation to terminate Daluz, Pato and Seno. Revil said the local executives had no authority to remove the three board officials.
Feliciano and other board members conducted their second board meeting inside the MCWD board room on Tuesday, with a special weapons and tactics (Swat) team sent by the City Legal Office waiting outside the MCWD building.
Nov. 8, 2023: Amando Virgil Ligutan, legal counsel of the former MCWD board, posed the question: If LWUA says the mayor has no authority to remove board members, how come Sevilla, Pe and Adlawan were terminated by Labella?
(Updated to include in the September 2022 portion of the timeline that the former MEU union furnished copies of their petition to the Office of the City Mayor, the Office of the President of the Philippines, and the Civil Service Commission, in addition to copies sent to the Office of the Ombudsman and Local Water Utilities Administration.)