[]Three-month audit by MCWD's finance team -- reported in SunStar Wednesday, April 15 -- confirms earlier report of Ruben Almendras as chairman of the board, that the water district has been losing "immensely."
[] Almendras tells News+One the "political and legal fight" from 2023 to 2025 over appointment of directors and general manager contributed to MCWD's problems.
[] He ruled out "as a factor" the law blocking elected officials from interfering with the business of water districts in the country.
NUMBERS FROM MCWD AUDIT, ALMENDRAS REPORT. MCWD's net income fell 89.42 percent in 2024, from P48.52 million to P5.13 million.
Those are numbers provided by the water district's finance team that conducted a three-year audit. Sourced -- in a SunStar April 15, 2026 Page 1 banner story by editor-in-chief Mildred V. Galarpe -- to MCWD publicist and spokesperson Minerva Gerodias.
Compare the audit figures to the report given by Ruben Almendras, MCWD chairman of the board, published January 14 and February 4, 2026 here in News+One:
-- "MCWD is losing immensely and on negative cash flows. Revenue is less than cost of water, so no margin." "P6.5 million lost daily with 30 percent of production wasted as non-revenue."
-- "In 2025, MCWD lost P765 million with negative cash flow of P342 million."
RELATED: Seares: [] The bad news from MCWD, Feb. 4, 2026 [] MCWD is losing immensely, Jan. 15, 2026 [] Who's liable for MCWD's financial losses? Feb. 15, 2026
THIS TIME THE CAUSES MATTER MORE. The problem can be solved more quickly if the causes are identified and the corrections made. What set off the financial crisis at MCWD?
-- The MCWD audit, the Galarpe story says, traced the income decline to "a timing mismatch between rising operational costs and delayed water tariff adjustments."
It was selling water at a much lower price than the cost of its production or purchase.
-- Almendras told me Wednesday, April 15, it was "mismanagement and corruption." Earlier, on January 14, he noted the lack of transparency at MCWD, which could've uncovered early the ills at the firm dating back to five or six years ago. He said the figures in the books were "massaged."
Wednesday's story on the MCWD audit didn't mention about doctored reports. In August 2025, Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña, calling the MCWD crisis "a very serious situation," also talked of "mismanagement and anomalies." Other issues have preoccupied the VM since then.
SQUABBLE WAS DESTRUCTIVE. Almendras cited the "political and legal fight" in 2023, 2024 and 2025 -- a squabble between then board chairman Jose Daluz III and mayor Mike Rama -- as a major factor in the water district's crisis.
Worsening that was the lack of directors and quorum, resulting from the quarrel over who can fire board members, along with the fiasco in LWUA's takeover and contradictory rulings/opinions of the court, City Hall, LWUA, and solicitor general.
Almendras was appointed director, representing the civic sector, on December 15, 2025 by Mayor Nestor Archival. Elected as chairman on January 29, 2026, Almendras had previously served the MCWD board for 11 years (1993 to 2004), nine of which as chairman.
"It took some effort," Almendras said, for Archival and VM Osmeña to return him, and install two other directors, to the then paralyzed board. The board and the general manager run MCWD.
HOW ABOUT FAILURE OF OVERSIGHT? I asked board chief Almendras if failure to avert or stop the "corruption and mismanagement" was also due to failure of oversight.
"Not a factor," he said Wednesday. It's "corruption and mismanagement." There are "many good and competent officers and staff in MCWD." Yet, some may "succumb to the usual government kickbacks and SOPs, which may have reached the department level."
[Next: How the law -- the local Water Utilities Act -- is shutting out politicians from MCWD. Is the law working?]