Manila police will get water supply back next week

NCRPO director Chief Supt. Leonardo Espina. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Manila Police District Office’s water supply is to be restored next week following agreement by the Philippine National Police headquarters to pay for the district’s water bill arrearages totalling P8 million, a high police official said Friday.

National Capital Region Police Office Director Leonardo Espina said the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame has procured the money with which to pay concessionaire Maynilad and that it would be released next week.

“As the money comes out next week, water supply will be back,” Espina said at a media briefing in Camp Karingal in Quezon City. “Next week, it will be surely settled.”

Espina said the police district had  accumulated a total of P12-million in water bill arrears  and some of the debt was paid after PNP Chief Alan Purisima assumed command of the NCRPO in 1999.

The money coming from PNP headquarters in Camp Crame will be delivered in cash, Espina said.

The national headquarters will also be doling out P2.1 million to replace the aging pipes at the  MPD headquarters on United Nations Avenue in the wake of last Monday’s water disconnection.

“There is a need to revive the plumbing system inside the [MPD] building. Many of those pipes are leaking,” Espina said.

“We need to rationalize the consumption of our utilities, which is in this case, water,” Espina added.

It was the third time for the Manila police’s water supply was disconnected. The first two happened in 2012.