More than 1,000 low-income households at Barangay Captain Albert Aguilar in Las Piñas City can expect to see a P2,500 rebate in their August bill from Maynilad Water Services Inc.
Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) chief regulator Patrick Ty said that the one-time rebate was a penalty that Maynilad had agreed to incur “as a gesture of goodwill but without any admission of guilt.”
“They [beneficiaries] would definitely feel the benefits of this rebate,” Ty told the Inquirer in an interview. “The amount may be not very large, but it is not candy-cheap.”
He could not give the exact number of Maynilad customers that were eligible for the rebate, saying the MWSS Regulatory Office was still verifying the figure.
The MWSS Board announced the penalty two weeks ago, saying that for more than 15 days in May, Maynilad failed to provide residents in the barangay with a water supply that was available for 24 hours daily and at a minimum pressure of 7 pounds per square inch.
Maynilad, however, invoked force majeure for its failure, saying the problem occurred because of factors beyond its control.
Specifically, its Putatan facility in Muntinlupa City— which treats water from Laguna de Bay to produce potable water—had to limit its output last May because there was too much algae in the lake.
Service interruptions
In a public advisory, Maynilad also said that daily water service interruptions would continue in its concession area even though the water level at Angat Dam had slightly improved.
The stock in the dam stayed above the critical threshold of 160 meters above sea level (masl) for almost two weeks—reaching almost 162 masl—before dipping again to below the critical mark on Thursday.
Service interruptions continue to be implemented “because the raw water allocation given by the National Water Resources Board for Metro Manila and nearby provinces is still at 36 cubic meters per second (cms) which is lower compared to the normal 48 cms allocation,” Maynilad said.