By DOMINIC GUTOMAN
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – The mass layoff of 400 employees of Bacolod City Water District (BACIWA) due to a joint venture agreement (JVA) with Villar-owned Prime Water Inc., calls for closer scrutiny, according to a labor non-government organization (NGO).
Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) said that many rights are at stake in the issue: employees’ right to security of tenure; their right to freedom of expression; their right to freedom of association; and the public’s right to sufficient, safe, and affordable water for personal and domestic use.
“The public and the country’s policymakers should listen to the BACIWA employees, who continue to hold protests in front of the National Civil Service Commission (CSC) in Batasan, Quezon City, calling for the swift resolution of their case, their immediate reinstatement and the granting of full back wages,” said CTUHR in a statement.
From previously having 500 personnel, only 23 were retained for the monitoring unit. Sixty of the retrenched employees filed a complaint to the regional office of CSC in the Western Visayas, which BACIWA responded by declaring their positions “redundant” through an office order. On August 21, 2021, the CSC ordered the reinstatement of 60 employees “without loss of seniority and shall be entitled to full pay from the time of their separation until actual reinstatement.”
However, according to BACIWA employees, the company appealed the decision to the CSC national office. More than three years have passed since their initial victory, the case is still withheld.
“We also invoke the public’s right to know in relation to the privatization deal. We know that Rodrigo Duterte’s cronies, like the Villars, were rewarded handsomely under his presidency. The process and contents of the privatization deal should be investigated and made public,” CTUHR said.
BACIWA entered into a 25-year JVA with Villar-owned PrimeWater Inc. since November 2020, during the administration of Rodrigo Duterte. Then, BACIWA’s Board of Director said that the agency has no “financial capacity to fund an expansion project that would answer the need for more water supply.”
“Water privatization through the JVA has also resulted in worsened services and increased rates. Despite unclean and inadequate water supply, in Bacolod, water rates for lifeline consumers of up to 10 cubic meters increased from Php208 to Php245, while a 4% hike in the basic charge was implemented under the JVA with Prime Water,” said consumers’ group Water for the People Network (WPN).
WPN and also reported similar incidents in other water districts taken over by Prime Water such as in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, where access to water is poor or none at all, with high rates.
Due to these poor services, WPN and another consumers’ group Samahan at Ugnayan ng mga Konsumer para sa Ikauunlad ng Bayan (SUKI), demanded the immediate investigation of BACIWA employees’ layoff and the nullification of water JVA.
“In the medium to long-term, the government should necessarily take over running the country’s water utilities to ensure that ample service is provided to the people safely, affordable and accessible,” said WPN.
Among the human rights risks of private provision of water and sanitation are profit maximization, natural monopoly, and power imbalance, according to a 2020 report by UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking and water sanitation Leo Heller.
He explained that the profit-driven motives of private water and sanitation providers can conflict with states’ obligations to offer affordable services for all, particularly in natural monopoly situations where a single provider dominates and regulatory bodies risk capture, weakening their ability to protect human rights. These challenges are intensified by power imbalances between public authorities and private companies, exacerbating risks to the human rights to water and sanitation. (RVO)
