MANILA, Philippines?The land for the housing project of employees and executives of Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) at the La Mesa watershed is bigger than Rizal Park.

The MWSS employees have been granted rights to 58 hectares of the 2,700-hectare watershed in Quezon City.

By contrast, Manila?s Rizal Park, where President Benigno Aquino III delivered his inaugural address, occupies only 53 hectares.

The site of the housing project was awarded to 1,411 National Waterworks and Sewerage Administration (Nawasa) employees back in 1968 under a collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

Through a raffle, Nawasa, forerunner of MWSS, granted land rights to beneficiaries from members of its two labor unions?the Kaisahan at Kapatiran ng mga Manggagawa sa Kawani sa Nawasa and the Balara Employees and Laborers Association.

The CBA initially allotted property ?near? La Mesa for the project but ?a new site? was later chosen within the watershed.

A Supreme Court ruling green-lighted the project in 1975. The turnover of the absolute deed of sale to the claimants was made in March 2006.

Two months after the turnover, a coalition led by ABS-CBN Foundation Inc.?s Bantay Kalikasan launched a campaign to block the housing project, warning that the planned homes could send pollutants downstream into the La Mesa reservoir.

The watershed is the main source of drinking water for the residents of Metro Manila and nearby areas.

3-ha housing for execs

The coalition also discovered that aside from employee housing, some 120 houses were being built for MWSS executives in a three-hectare area on the other side of the lake.

Mr. Aquino mentioned the La Mesa housing project among the perks received by MWSS employees in his first State of the Nation Address on Monday. He called the perks extravagant.

But on Wednesday, the founder of the MWSS labor association said MWSS employees were unfairly ?maligned.?

He said the La Mesa housing project was aboveboard as it obtained all the necessary permits, including one from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Eliza Victoria, Inquirer Research

Source: Inquirer Archives