[] LWUA, like Cebu City Government, is restricted in its power to oversee operations of local water districts. LWUA is limited to, among others, reviewing appointment or dismissal of directors and taking over management only when the water district defaults on a loan granted by the water district.
[] Tomas has given up hope on MCWD managers but Mayor Archival talks with water district officials, contradicting the thrust of the city's water czar.
[] It seems the autonomy of water districts gives MCWD's board of directors the right to discipline themselves. Its officials and personnel may be sanctioned criminally and civilly but through administrative or criminal process. Then mayor Mike Rama was right in going to the Ombudsman but not in going to LWUA, which returned Rama's complaint.
CEBU City Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña wants Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) to "intervene" in operations of Metropolitan Cebu Water District to avert a water crisis and make a "complete overhaul of MCWD's board of directors and management."
He sent a formal letter to LWUA last August 7, 2025.
Calling MCWD "useless," Tomas later said "we are going directly to LWUA because MCWD is not performing." "Pointless to ask MCWD," he said, "no transparency."
But how would that work? LWUA's power over local water districts is limited. Just like an LGU's power in its water district, even more severely.
MCWD AS TOMAS SEES IT... An August 9, 2025 news report said VM Osmeña spoke of "all kinds of anomalies," "overpriced water," and (increasing volume of) "non-revenue water."
Tomas used "alarmist" language, including "alarming," "worsening condition of the city's water supply," "gone out of control," "indications of corruption within MCWD," and "it may just collapse."
... AND AS MCWD SEES ITSELF. MCWD management promptly answered: "There is no looming water shutdown, no financial collapse, and no basis for alarm." Water supply "remains stable" and MCWD "continues to operate under normal conditions."
TOMAS DOESN'T HAVE SOLID PROOF, YET. He spoke only of "indications of corruption," anomalies "that I hear about," “I don't have all the facts now,” "my team is waiting for the right time to delve deeper..."
Suspicions that surely cause concern but not enough and not the kind for LWUA to "intervene."
THIS IS NOW A REPRISE OF PAST PROBLEMS of the Cebu City Government with MCWD, more particularly the legal mess started by then mayor Edgardo Labella.
Labella in 2019 fired MCWD three directors but was promptly assailed in a lawsuit, which won for the City Government in Cebu Regional Trial Court. The victory emboldened then mayor Mike Rama to formally dismiss chairman Jose Daluz III and two directors. The petitioners appealed the RTC ruling in 2023 to the Supreme Court.
Meantime, blunting Cebu City's victory at the local court, the Office of Government Counsel issued a legal opinion that the mayor had the right to appoint but cannot remove a director. Mayor Mike Rama, succeeding Labella during his illness and by election in 2022, chose to go through the Ombudsman and LWUA after his move against Daluz and associates was rebuffed.
Until now, the issue has not been resolved. Complicated, "gubot pa's lukot," a complication caused largely by gaps in the law.
RELATED: Seares: Dysfunction, mess at MCWD, squabble with City Hall and LWUA are caused by gaps in the law, political interests and plain incivility. SunStar, April 16, 2024.
THE 'OFFENDING' LAW must be Presidential Decree 198. Section 1 of the Local Water Utilities Act says that "once formed, a district is subject to the provisions of PD 198 and NOT UNDER THE JURISDICTION OR CONTROL OF ANY POLITICAL SUBDIVISION in order to maintain their autonomy (the "all caps" are mine)."
MCWD, or its board of directors, has used that law to repel any form of intervention from the LGU and LWUA.
Yet the RTC ruling said the right to hire carries with it the right to fire and "the mayor disciplining the directors doesn't affect the intent of autonomy." It merely aims "to prevent the LGU from meddling in purely internal affairs, management or operation of the district."
The SC still has to settle the clash of views.
TOO MUCH TRUST IN BOARD OF DIRECTORS. Apparently, the system devised by the law for local water districts relies largely on a board of directors that will behave prudently, honestly and wisely to run the water district.
That, even without the supervision of the local government and close oversight by the national agency.
UNDER WATER DISTRICT AUTONOMY, EVEN LWUA IS RESTRICTED. People, including public officials like VM Osmeña, seem to think that LWUA can revamp, overhaul, and do other things with any allegedly erring local water district. That must be why Tomas turned to LWUA for relief.
But LWUA is also handicapped by these restrictions, as shown in its recent handling of situations in Cebu's MCWD and Cagayan de Oro City Water District (COWD).
Twice, LWUA's intervention in Cebu was frustrated and its entry into Cagayan de Oro was met with resistance. The Mindanao water district was anything but, ah, cowed by LWUA's "meddling."
The two water districts' position is that LWUA can take over a water district only if it defaults on its loan from that agency. MCWD has insisted that it had been paying amortization on time. LWUA, probably knowing the limit on its power, used MCWD's default on other obligations under the contract to justify intervention. Also an unsettled question.
ON FIRING DIRECTORS, LWUA MERELY APPROVES. Mike Rama, city mayor at the time, resorted to the Ombudsman and LWUA to have Daluz and two other directors dismissed.
He was emboldened to dismiss them directly and formally only after the RTC ruling. But then the issue still hangs unless the SC will affirm the local court's decision.
ARCHIVAL MUST KNOW THE UNCERTAIN LEGAL GROUND on which they tread: Cebu City as an LGU and LWUA as the supposed overseer of water districts.
Here's the thing, for now:
[] Cebu City Government, through the mayor, can fill a vacancy in the MCWD board but cannot fire a member without being questioned on legality. (At least before the SC decides the issue.) LWUA cannot hire or fire but shall review any hiring by the mayor or firing by the board or some other competent authority.
[2] LWUA cannot take over MCWD except when the water district fails to pay it loan from LWUA. A position disputed by LWUA but upheld by the Office of the General Counsel.
MOST WOULD DEPEND ON THE BOARD. MCWD officials -- its managers and directors -- are given by law the autonomy to make MCWD stable and profitable.
As the RTC ruling raised, what if the problem is caused by the board or some of its members, how can discipline be imposed?
The law says the mayor can appoint a new director but is questioned if he removes one. LWUA can name temporary directors during a takeover but only if it can justify the takeover and that's when the water district defaults on its loan from LWUA. Accusation or suspicion of corruption or mismanagement is not a ground for takeover unless it results in failure of the water district to pay its LWUA loan.
TOMAS SUSPICIONS CAN HARDLY JUSTIFY LWUA INTERVENTION. If he followed the happenings between LWUA and MCWD, Vice Mayor Osmeña must know he cannot expect much from LWUA.
Tomas can use his platform though -- his being vice mayor and City Council presiding officer -- to raise his complaints against the water district.
On complaining: First, a formal grievance from the City Council and the mayor will be stronger than the VM's personal lament. Second, it will be more effective and will draw wider public support if the vice mayor fleshes out his suspicions with mass of evidence.
ARCHIVAL DISAGREES ON VM'S SHUTOUT OF MCWD. Mayor Nestor Archival Sr. must think there's still hope of the City Government working with MCWD. He met Monday, August 11, with the water district's officials and general manager Edgar Donoso and discussed "concerns about the water supply."
That move runs counter to the thrust of VM Osmeña -- who is touted in news reports as the city's water czar -- who had given up hope in MCWD's current management.
No comment yet from Tomas who, as water czar, must have been consulted on the mayor's moves that don't coincide with VM's own. Osmeña instead announced about his leaving in October and staying abroad for a month of medical procedures.
WHAT MOVES OF ARCHIVAL, GARCIA TELL. The strategy of Mayor Archival and, before him then mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia, was to talk with MCWD managers, instead of just publicly whining over alleged faults and shortcomings at the water district.
Comparing that with initiatives then mayor Mike Rama and now Vice Mayor Osmeña -- to remove the corrupt and inefficient from MCWD -- the Cebu public still has to see which would work better and more quickly.