Manila Water: Waiver is ‘extraordinary, one time’

Manila Water Company, Inc. President and CEO Ferdinand dela Cruz.

MANILA, Philippines – Manila Water Co. Inc. announced Tuesday it was voluntarily implementing “an extraordinary, one-time bill waiver” related to customers’ consumption in March and reflected on the bill that will be issued in April.

“We are doing this to help ease the inconvenience that we caused our customers,” Manila Water president Ferdinand dela Cruz said in a press briefing.

The bill waiver is two-pronged. First, all Manila Water customers will not pay the minimum charge that represents that first 10 cubic meters consumed in a month.

This amounts to at least P76 for lifeline residential customers using 10 cubic meters at most, to as much as P656 a month for industrial customers.

Second, those who experience not having any water flow from their tap for 24 hours in at least seven days — whether consecutive or not — will not pay anything for the whole month.

Dela Cruz said the company was still studying the mechanics of this one-time waiver, and would make further announcements when details become available.

Reynaldo Velasco, administrator of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, said that even with the voluntary waiver scheme, the MWSS Regulatory Office would still pursue appropriate penalties for Manila Water under the concession agreement. /cbb