Palace: Water shortage in NCR may be artificial

MANILA, Philippines — The government will investigate the water shortage in some parts of Metro Manila, Malacañang said Thursday.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the water shortage in the metropolis could be “artificial.”

“We are precisely investigating to know exactly what is happening or what’s the cause of the lack of water supply,” Panelo said in a Palace briefing.

Citing information from Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Panelo said Angat Dam, where Manila Water sources its water, is not at a critical level.

“Kung totoo na puno ang Angat Water Dam ibig sabihin inefficiency iyan, mismanaged. Iyon lang iyon (If it is true that the Angat Water Dam is full, this means inefficiency, or it may be mismanaged. That’s it),” he said.

“Eh iyon nga, di ba sabi ko inefficiency iyan, mismanaged (I said it could be inefficiency, it’s mismanaged)?” he reiterated.

Panelo cited that Maynilad, another water concessionaire that gets water from Angat Dam, is not facing water shortage problem.

“Eh ‘di artificial lang iyon, kung ganoon because if the source is full and another concessionaire is also full. Eh bakit naman iyong isa hindi. Iyon ang logic doon,” he said.

(That means it [water shortage] is artificial because the source is full. Then why is it that the other concessionaire has no problems. That’s the logic there.)

Panelo said Lorenzana shared the information that the water shortage may be fabricated in the Viber group chat of Cabinet officials.

He shared that according to Lorenzana, the water shortage is “hindi raw totoo eh (false).”

“Iyon ang gist noong sinasabi ni Secretary Lorenzana eh doon sa kaniyang chat na the water comes from Angat Dam and there is no shortage doon; as far as that particular dam is concerned – puno, walang kulang, so bakit nagkakakulang iyong distribution. So gaya ng sinabi ninyo kanina, kulang iyong ibinigay iyong allocation dito sa parte ng Maynila. Eh iyon ang sigurong alamin natin bakit, ba’t nagkaganoon,” he said.

(That’s the gist of what Secretary Lorenzana said in the chat. The water comes from the Angat Dam, and there is no shortage there. So why is it that there is a distribution problem. So like what I said earlier, there is a shortfall in the water allocation in some parts of Metro Manila. Maybe that is what we should look at. What happened there?) /ee

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