WATER SUPPLY RESUMES MIWD, Flo Water come to an agreement BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA ILOILO City – After almost four hours of negotiation yesterday, Flo Water Resources Iloilo, Inc. agreed to resume delivering water to the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD). At the Iloilo provincial capitol, the bulk water supplier and the city’s sole water distributor signed a supplemental agreement aimed at ensuring the uninterrupted supply of water in the city and suburbs. Dr. Rogelio Florete Sr. of Flo Water and Dr. Danilo Encarnacion of MIWD shook hands to seal the supplemental agreement almost a week after the bulk water supplier decided to stop delivering water over the water district’s failure to pay it on Aug. 11. Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. worked behind the scene the past week to thresh out the two parties’ financial disagreement. Encarnacion and Florete thanked him. The meeting yesterday was held at the Capitol Board Room. MIWD handed Flo Water a check for P5 million – its payment for the month of August to the bulk water supplier. Florete immediately ordered the resumption of Flo Water’s operation. “We have no intention to make the public suffer,” said Florete. For the past 18 to 19 months that Flo Water had been delivering water to MIWD, the water district only made three payments, sad Florete. “For as long as everybody follows the agreement,” Flo Water will not stop delivering water to MIWD, he stressed. While Flo Water resumed its operation yesterday, it may take some time for clean water to reach MIWD concessionaires. There is a need to remove unsafe water that stagnated in the pipelines for a week that Flo Water stopped delivering water to MIWD. Both parties (photo) agreed that, without waiving their respective claims and positions on the “take or pay” issue of their bulk water supply agreement (BWSA), “MIWD shall endeavor to make efforts to accommodate the total volume of 15,000 cubic meters of water per day” into its system as provided for in their contract. Flo Water also proposed to lay pipelines at its expense so that the contracted volume of water will be brought in to MIWD. MIWD is not capable of accepting its contracted 15,000 cubic meters of water daily from Flo Water because its pipelines were small compared to that of the bulk water supplier’s. According to Encarnacion, they will decide on Flo Water’s proposal by the end of this month. He said MIWD is still waiting for an “important decision” from the Local Water Utilities Administration and Department of Public Works and Highways on the grant of a pipeline from Leganes, Iloilo to barangays Lanit, Tacas and Ungka in Jaro, Iloilo City. Aside from this, Encarnacion disclosed that they are also banking on their loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines for additional pipes. Other provisions of the supplemental agreement were: * MIWD shall pay “upon execution of this agreement” without a need of a reminder on or before the first week of a particular month to include: (a) August payment of P5 million to be released immediately upon the execution of the supplemental agreement (b) September payment – P5 million to be released first week of September 2014, and (C) October payment – to be released first week of October 2014, and it is without conditions and penalties or cost of water treatment incurred for the period of February 2013 to January 2014, as payment of water actually received. For the penalties, if any, after January 2014, the same shall be resolved on the basis of the BWSA and the parties agree to formulate a protocol to have an accurate determination of water quality compliance. If the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) resolves that the BWSA is a “take or pay”, the computation shall be made in accordance with such resolution. Both parties shall adopt the Generally Accepted Accounting Principle * MIWD shall accept the total volume and waive any penalty on the water delivered on Aug. 9. With regard to the water that is present or the water that stagnated in the 12-kilometer transmission line of Flo Water (Pototan to Leganes), MIWD will accept it and MIWD will not impose any penalty on it. In both times that Flo Water interrupted its services to MIWD (Aug. 9 to Aug. 11, 2014), MIWD will not impose any penalty to Flo Water for the said service interruptions. * That the parties shall endeavor for an early resolution of the Motion for Reconsideration of Flo Water, preferably before the end of August 2014. Flo Water and MIWD shall accept and immediately implement the resolution of the OGCC on the said issue without prejudice to any legal remedy that any party may avail itself under the premises.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 21:46:17 +0000
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