FILE PHOTO: Angat Dam. Photo by Carmela Reyes-Estrope
The Supreme Court has ruled that dam water is an appropriated water already removed from natural resources, and thus, can no longer be subject to national wealth tax.
In a 28-page decision promulgated in October 2023 but made public only on Friday, the high court en banc said the Court of Appeals erred when it affirmed a local court’s ruling, which found the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) was liable to pay the provincial government of Bulacan a share in the utilization and development of national wealth.
“The moment that water from Angat River is already appropriated and impounded into the Angat Dam, it ceases to form part of natural resource,” the high tribunal said in a decision penned by Associate Justice Henri Jean Paul Inting.
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The Supreme Court effectively granted the MWSS petition for review on certiorari as it reversed and set aside the 2008 decision of the appellate court in favor of Bulacan province.
The case stemmed from the complaint for specific performance/payment of national wealth share against MWSS filed by the provincial government of Bulacan through then Gov. Josefina Dela Cruz.
The Bulacan government said MWSS had been getting proceeds from the water resource of Angat Dam, which is located within its territorial jurisdiction.
It claimed MWSS must pay the local government a share of the utilization and development of national wealth.
However, the MWSS argued it was a nonprofit service utility created to provide water supply and a wastewater disposal system to Metro Manila and its neighboring provinces.
The MWSS added water stored in Angat Dam did not necessarily come from Bulacan as it was simply stored in the catchment.
As a man-made structure, the dam, according to the MWSS, does not fall within the scope of national wealth that would entitle a local government like Bulacan to a share in the proceeds derived from its utilization and development.