BY CRIS DIAZ
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY: Two witnesses admitted that some contents of the contract entered by the Cagayan de Oro City Water District (COWD) and the Metro Pacific Water (Metro Pac) were disadvantageous to the consumers.
Engr. Rachel Beja, the former COWD General Manager, told the committee created to probe into the contract at the start of the marathon hearing Tuesday.
Cagayan de Oro City Rolando Uy signed Executive Order No. 109-2024 dated March 6 2024 creating the Cagayan de Oro Special Task Force for Water Supply and Distribution.
Uy issued the Executive Order after the Metro Pac owned Cagayan de Oro Bulk Water Incorporated (COBI) that supplies more than 100 million liters daily to the city’s more than 300,000 consumers.
COBI threatens to cut the daily bulk water supply to the COWD for the failure of the water district to pay more than P400 million water debt.
In return, the Task Force formed a four-man committee chaired by City Councilor James Judith to conduct a probe in order to review and examine the contract executed by the COWD and MetroPac.
Beja and former City Councilor Eric Salcedo were the first two local executives invited to shed light about the controversial COWD-Metro Pac water contract.
Salcedo told the committee that during his incumbency, he and two other city councilors, filed three resolutions to get a copy of the contract, but to no avail..
He said that one resolution was sent to the COWD askingcooied of the contract, the second to the Commissions on Audit (COA) and the third was to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
“All the resolutions that we sent to COA, COWD and NEDA did get reply,” Salcedo said.
Judith said that the marathon hearing is expected to end on Thursday with the committee getting positive output in sid of legislation.
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