SBMA, Olongapo to sell water utility shares

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The cash-strapped Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is divesting its shares in the water utility, which supplies locators in this free port as well as residents in nearby Olongapo City, according to a top agency official.

SBMA Chair Roberto Garcia said the agency would divest its 20-percent share in Subic Water and Sewerage Co. Inc. (Subic Water), the country’s first water and sewerage system to be developed through a build-operate-transfer scheme.

The firm, formed by a joint venture agreement in 1996, is owned by construction firm DM Consunji Inc., Singaporean utilities specialist Sembcorp Industries Ltd., SBMA and the Olongapo City government.

Subic Water acquired the contract to manage and operate the insolvent Olongapo Water District in 1996 on the condition that the city government would be entitled to 10 percent of its shares of stocks.

Garcia said it was time for SBMA to divest its shares to free up capital in the water utility.

Asked how much SBMA was going to make from the sale, Garcia said he expected to fetch “around P300 million.”

Olongapo City is also set to follow the free port’s lead, and has been holding public hearings on its proposal to sell its shares in Subic Water.

Olongapo City Councilor Gina Perez, who is conducting the public hearings on behalf of the city government, said, “Now is the right time to capitalize on the current uptrend of the Philippine Stock Market Index to convert Olongapo’s shares into funds that could be used to spend on much needed infrastructure projects and other priority programs of the city government.”

She said the move would also free the city government “from possible conflicts of interest issue because it is a regulator, a consumer and part-owner of the utility.”

She said the city government intended to use the earnings from the sale for the repair and construction of roads, drainage and flood control systems, health and poverty alleviation programs. Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon