UNDISPUTED FACTS regarding Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) since the day they were disclosed by newly installed board chairman Ruben Almendras:
[] The water district, supplying water to Cebu City and most of Metro Cebu, has been “losing immensely” and “on negative cash flow.” It has “no gross margin as revenue is less than cost of water.” Almendras gave that information to News+One on January 12, 2026.
[] Specific figures on MCWD losses, as revealed by (a) Almendras before an assembly of City Hall officials and personnel last February 2, 2026 and (b) City Mayor Nestor Archival Sr, at a presscon the next day: P765 million was lost in 2025 and P6.5 million is wasted daily on non-revenue water (NRW).
[] Apparent causes of bleeding: One, production cost is much higher than the income from the sale to consumers. To illustrate: MCWD buys at P35.70/cu.m. and sells at P1.03/cu.m. An earlier report placed the production cost even higher -- at P43-42 per cu.m. – because other expenses kicked in. Two is the NRW, or the wasted water, caused by unattended “pipe leaks” and possible unbilled water.
TOMAS ALLEGATIONS STILL TO BE PROVED. Last August 9, 2025, Vice Mayor Osmeña alleged “mismanagement and anomalies” within MCWD, which prompted him, he said, to ask the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) to intervene.
News reports at the time said the vice mayor raised “alarm” over a “very serious situation” that threatens the Metro water supply. He didn’t submit specifics and evidence though. VM Osmeña said he “didn’t have all the facts now but it’s very alarming.” And he wanted to head the City Government overseer on the water problem. (A Freeman story said Osmeña “personally requested to be designated as the city’s water czar.”) To which an MCWD official statement responded by saying everything was “normal” at the water district and there was no cause for alarm.
Tomas looked and sounded like he was raring to go after the people responsible for the alleged mismanagement and corruption at MCWD. He left for the U.S. last October 2025 reportedly to undergo two surgeries but was back for the resumption of the City Council session in January 2026.
Apparently the vice mayor has not publicly said anything about the problems at MCWD, including the moves of Chairman Almendras for the financial recovery, topped by renegotiation about the selling price of the bulk suppliers and cutting the rate of non-revenue water.
WOULD OSMEÑA BE THE WATER CZAR? As he earlier said, he would want to be in charge of water concerns.
But since his return from his U.S. medical leave, Tomas has publicly talked only about the Carbon public market controversy, a soft opening of “Mayor for the Night” project, and even the proposal to penalize bars and liquor stores that serve liquor to over-drunk customers.
Not about MCWD, particularly on going after those responsible for MCWD’s funding woes caused by, he had said, mismanagement and anomalies. Not anymore.
TO REVIEW DEALS WITH BULK-WATER SELLERS. Monday, February 9, 2026, I asked the MCWD board chairman if he’d look into the possibility of collusion and fraud on the prices of bulk water.
He didn’t directly answer that.
“We’re now rationalizing bulk water supply as to volume, price and direction,” Almendras said. They aim to “optimize revenue” or reduce the weighted average cost of water. How? By “getting the minimum contracted volume from private supply and maximizing the low-cost MCWD production from surface and well water.” In sum, to supply consumers with more of its own produced water than the water bought from outsiders.
They will review the purchase contracts (“we have to go over each contract”) to see their “price justification.” On costly desalination water, Almendras said they’d direct it to “high-priced customers,” like the MEPZ companies, where MCWD can charge more.
DOES HE HAVE EVIDENCE OF FRAUD, I ASKED, to steer him back to the matter of “anomalies,” which VM Osmeña had earlier raised and Almendras indicated by his information that books were being “massaged.”
“Rumors of kickbacks on bulk water supply contracts and pipe-laying projects aplenty,” he said. “Hard to get evidence (of corruption) as those are cash transactions.”
HOW ABOUT INVESTIGATION BY POLICE OR NBI? Would MCWD request for one, as the City Council and then city mayor Mike Rama did on the P239.72 million garbage collection “overpayment” in 2021? I asked Chairman Almendras.
“In due time,” he said.