LWUA employees want P780M back

Officials and employees of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) want the Express Savings Bank Inc. (ESBI) to return the P780 million that former LWUA chair Prospero Pichay illegally used to purchase the majority of the bank’s shares in 2009.

“While we are happy with the dismissal of Pichay and others, the fund should be returned to LWUA and be used for the agency’s projects,” said Rustico Tutol of the LWUA Employees Association for Progress (LEAP) on Tuesday.

Acting Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro on Monday ordered the dismissal of Pichay based on the plunder case filed by LEAP in 2010. Also ordered dismissed were former LWUA acting administrator Daniel Landingin and acting deputy administrator Wilfredo Feleo.

Arnaldo Espinas, former LWUA corporate board secretary and legal officer, was not included in the Ombudsman’s order but Tutol said they are pursuing the case against him.

Carmen Amores, also from LEAP, said the new LWUA board of trustees under Ephyro Luis Amatong had sought the recovery of the P780 million since they took over the water agency in June.

“But up to now, ESBI could not return (even a single centavo),” she said.

The Ombudsman found Pichay and other officials guilty of the unlawful transfer of LWUA fund to bail out ESBI, a losing, private bank based in Cabuyao, Laguna.

LEAP’s records showed that the LWUA officials first invested P80 million to buy 60 percent of the bank’s common shares and deposited P400 million and another P300 million from June to October in 2009.

“The P700 million is a (bank) deposit and therefore could be immediately withdrawn. That is if the money isn’t gone yet,” Amores said.

Aside from the P780 million, LEAP said a number of water districts under the control of Pichay deposited ten percent of their earnings with ESBI. The water districts began pulling out their investments from the bank when the plunder case broke out last year.

The Inquirer sought a comment from ESBI but administration staffer Maien Solasito said the management is not yet ready to give an official statement to media.

Tutol said LEAP is investigating other “anomalous” transactions of LWUA that could amount to P9 billion.

Among these, he said, were the P1.5 billion annual clean water supply fund from the national treasury that Pichay distributed to a number of water districts from 2008 until 2010, an election year.

The funds were given to the water districts as a 90 percent grant and 10 percent loan “without technical and financial feasibility studies.”