A LAWYER has called on Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama to reinstate the members of the board of directors (BOD) fired by his predecessor from the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) in 2019 if he wishes to address the issues in the water utility and uphold his manifestation.
On July 14, 2020, a manifestation filed by then city attorney Eugene Orbita and lawyer Ferdinand Cañete informed Branch 17 of the Regional Trial Court in Cebu City that Rama had decided “not to adopt or continue” the action of his predecessor, the late mayor Edgardo Labella, who had terminated former city attorney Ralph Sevilla, former Cebu City councilor Augustus Pe Jr. and lawyer Cecilia Adlawan from the MCWD board in 2019, citing consumer dissatisfaction over the water utility’s services.
Rama told SunStar Cebu then that he had not been in favor of Labella’s firing of the five-member board that included chairmain Joel Mari Yu and former Cebu City councilor Procopio Fernandez. Thus, Rama said, the City was no longer interested in defending itself in the injunction case filed to reverse Labella’s decision to fire Sevilla, Pe and Adlawan.
“We call on the mayor. Mayor Rama, if you want to solve the problem, if you are true to what you said that you do not agree with the termination of directors Pe, Sevilla and Adlawan by former mayor Labella, if you want to adhere to the rule of law, do what is right. End this madness in MCWD, and correct the wrong committed to directors Pe, Sevilla and Adlawan. Reinstate them as MCWD directors, once and for all,” Amando Virgil Ligutan, legal counsel of the trio, said in a press conference on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023.
“If they are reinstated, the law will be intact. The law will be followed, and we will forget our problem and once and for all, solve the water shortage problem,” Ligutan said when asked why he wanted his clients to be reinstated to their positions.
Last Wednesday, Nov. 8, Ligutan said he was seeking vindication for his clients, who are fighting not for the position but for what the law should be.
“Now the question is, my clients, do they really like the position? The answer is no. These are successful individuals in their own fields. They don’t like the position, but they are fighting for it by filing a petition in the SC (Supreme Court) not for them. It is because they know the law,” Ligutan said.
Impregnable
Ligutan said the opinion of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) had always been their argument in court, stating that a local executive cannot terminate the MCWD board of directors.
He said the “legal prohibition on the exercise of control by the mayor over MCWD after its formation constitutes an insurmountable, impregnable and untraversable legal barrier to any conclusion that the mayor can remove directors after the formation.”
Interviewed by SunStar Cebu Thursday, OGCC Government Corporate Counsel Rogelio Quevedo had said that based on Presidential Decree (PD) 198, the Cebu City Government has the power to appoint but not to remove members of the MCWD board, so technically, the power to remove lies only with the board of directors itself given there is just cause for the removal.
MCWD is a government-owned and -controlled corporation whose service area covers the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay and Lapu-Lapu and the municipalities of Consolacion, Liloan, Compostela and Cordova.
Ligutan reiterated that Section 6 of PD 198 says that “once formed, a district is subject to the provisions of this act and not under the jurisdiction of any political subdivision” and that Section 7 of PD 198, as amended by PD 768, says that “local government(s) shall lose ownership, supervision and control or any right whatsoever over the district except as provided herein.”
Ligutan said PD 198 “expressly provides that all powers, privileges and duties of the district are exercised through the board of directors, as stated in Section 17.”
He said the issue is not about who can appoint the board of directors but rather about who has the authority to terminate their services.
“After the formation of the water district, the government unit has no more rights over the water district. That is what Sections 6 and 7 of PD 198 say,” he said.
Insisting on authority
Despite statements from the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) and the OGCC, the Cebu City Government is still asserting its authority on the appointment and removal of board directors.
In a text message on Friday, Cebu City Budget and Finance Officer Jerone Castillo said the issue is already a “settled matter,” reiterating that the “power to appoint carries with it the power to remove.”
Castillo was the city’s legal officer last month when LWUA administrator Vicente Homer Revil sent the City Government a letter saying that “local executives have no authority to remove the chairperson and members of the board of directors of a water district.”
This was in reply to the City’s request for the issuance of a certificate of no objection to its recommendation to remove Jose Daluz III, Miguelito Pato and Jodelyn May Seno from the MCWD board.
Castillo said Daluz had sworn in testimony, through his judicial affidavit, that Labella had the power to remove the previous members of the MCWD board of directors, namely, Sevilla, Pe and Adlawan.
Castillo said the LWUA and OGCC opinion should not provide further confusion to the public, emphasizing that Mayor Rama had “effectively” removed Daluz, Pato and Seno from their positions on the board.
“The new board led by retired major general Melquiades Feliciano has taken over MCWD,” Castillo said.
“It is my observation, based on the publication of Manila Standard, that there is a rift between the LWUA admin and the board of trustees. It is clear that the LUWA administrator is doing acts without the authority of the board. Such an act is irresponsible, if not, downright illegal,” Castillo added.
Power to remove
Cebu City Legal Officer Carlo Vincent Gimena said in a text message Friday that PD 768, which amended PD 198, “explicitly” provided that “directors may be removed for cause only, subject to review and approval of the Administration.”
“There is nothing in said provision that says it is the MCWD board of directors who has the power to remove on the ground of just cause,” Gimena said.
He added that in the case of Rama vs. Moises, G.R. No. 197146, Dec. 6, 2016, it is clear that, as the Supreme Court ruled, the mayor of the City of Cebu has the power to appoint the members of the board of directors of MCWD.
When asked if it is the City Government that has the final say in determining who will serve as chairman of the board, given that it was Rama who appointed Feliciano, Gimena said it is the board of directors who will elect the chairman, but the power to appoint refers to the appointment of the BOD.
He said Rama “merely” appointed Feliciano as one of the members of the BOD, but the other members appointed him as their chairman during their first board meeting on Oct. 31, 2023.
On Thursday, Mayor Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr. of Talisay City, one of the franchise areas of MCWD, declined to comment on the rift between the water district and the Cebu City Government.