Water supply in police camp cut off due to unpaid bills
By Nathaniel R. MelicanPhilippine Daily Inquirer
The headquarters of the Southern Police District (SPD) at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City, was hit by a “dry spell” on Monday afternoon after Manila Water Co. cut the water supply to the police camp.
The reason for the cutoff: Three months’ worth of unpaid water bills totaling P280,000.
SPD spokesperson Supt. Jenny Tecson said that all the faucets within the camp suddenly dried up around 5 p.m. on Monday without an advance notice from the water firm.
The water supply, however, returned to normal Tuesday morning after the SPD paid off Manila Water.
Following the incident, the police district said it would investigate whether or not informal settlers inside the camp may have caused its water bills to balloon.
“When there was no water running through the faucets on Monday afternoon, we thought that [someone had closed] the camp’s main water valve,” Tecson said. “It was only yesterday morning when we confirmed [that] our water supply [had] been been cut off.”
According to her, Manila Water normally informs the SPD about unpaid bills and issues disconnection notices although this time, the police district did not get any advance notice.
“We paid the bill yesterday morning and got our water supply back before lunch,” she said.
Tecson explained that the payment for utility expenses at the SPD comes from the National Capital Region Police Office.
“The payment gets delayed, especially when we [go beyond] our spending targets. This time, there were also delays in the clearing of the checks for payment,” she said.
“We are in the process of inspecting the informal settlers here, checking if they have illegal connections to our water and electricity lines. So far, we haven’t found anyone tampering with our utilities,” Tecson said.
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