TACLOBAN CITY- They will continue their protest actions until the current management of the Leyte Metropolitan Water District (LMWD) will heed on their plea.
Thus said Noel Tabao, president of the Tacloban Union of Barangay Officials (TUBO) which is among the groups that is leading protest rallies against the plan of the current LMWD management to privatize said water company.
“We will not stop our protest rally, rain or shine, until they will listen to us and stop their plan to privatize the LMWD,” Noel said.
Noel was referring to the plan of the LMWD management to have a joint venture agreement with a Manila-based company that will eventually run and operate the LMWD.
According to Tabao, the plan of the current management to enter such agreement is suspicious considering that the member-consumers are not being consulted.
“There should be public consultation on this regards considering its impact to us, member-consumers. Just like any privately-managed corporations, its immediate impact to us is a higher water rate,” the TUBO president said.
Any hike on water rate will be an additional burden to LMWD member-consumers, he said, adding that the current LMWD management should better focus its effort to provide water to the families now living at the northern part of the city, the resettlement sites of families whose houses were totally destroyed when Tacloban City was devastated by supertyphoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013.
“Until now, there is no water supply in the northern part of the city. They have been crying out loud for LMWD to supply them water,” Tabao said.
There are more than 9,000 families now residing at the different resettlement sites at the northern part of Tacloban City who depend on water ration.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
