Unconscionable Act

THE board of directors and top management of state-run Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) should resign out of respect for the Filipino people. It’s a clear case of a lack of delicadeza when you reward yourself with so much perks even though half of your constituency suffers from the lack of a basic necessity you are supposed to provide.

The last time we checked the MWSS was still in charge of ensuring Metro Manila has ready access to potable water and sewerage services.

The findings of an ongoing Senate Committee on Finance investigation on perks of government -owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) are enough to make us boil (no pun intended)—and for that we laud the committee’s assiduous efforts.

In the case of the MWSS, its top management rewarded itself and all other employees 25 months’ worth of bonuses, including incentives supposedly arising from their presumably good performance.

Talk about organized skimming. With everyone in the organization happy, who’s to complain, the MWSS top brass perhaps thought when they decided on the perks.

This is no different from corruption in line agencies, in which everyone’s pockets—from the lowly clerk to the head honcho—is lined with grease money to facilitate a transaction.

While the second is illegal, the first is unconscionable.

The million-peso question is, if half of Metro Manila didn’t have reliable access to potable water a few months ago, then shouldn’t this reflect not only on the performance of the concession-holder, but ultimately on the record of the MWSS, which owns the concession?

If, as the MWSS insists, the concession-holder is a mere agent, then shouldn’t the agency as the principal be responsible for the water crisis of a few months ago?

But as far as the MWSS top brass is concerned, they earn their keep when the agency stayed afloat at the height of the worst global financial crisis in decades.

True, the agency has its own charter, and may well do as it pleases when it comes to rewarding its personnel. But where is their sense of proportion amid the national government’s fiscal straits?

Moreover, the MWSS remains a public service, and so the barometer of success should not be limited to financial performance.

In their case, it’s as clear as daylight: Half of Metro Manila had difficulty securing potable water a few months ago.

The concession-holder of the West zone incurred 50 percent non-revenue water. This means that for every liter of billed water, the company—Maynilad Water Services Inc.—was losing an equal amount in unbilled water.

This is water, and foregone revenue, down the drain.

This is why we took Maynilad to task for its poor performance in this same space.

And this is why shouldn’t stop at the company’s doors, and take the matter to MWSS.

In fact, we shouldn’t even stop there. Amid the callous, self-serving actuations of that sorry excuse for a public service agency, we should bring this matter before the President.

Especially since no amount of expose apparently has moved the MWSS top brass to do a Magtibay (with apologies to the relieved police senior superintendent).

As the Senate committee chair said, it’s your move, Mr. President. We expect heads to roll in a matter involving a serious breach of morals.

what the other papers say

Wrong targets for our understandable anger
Leader (editorial) of the August 25 issue of the foremost Hong Kong newspaper in English, the South China Morning Post.

There is understandable anger in Hong Kong towards the police tactical response team in Manila. Its efforts to end the hostage-taking appeared farcical, a matter addressed with palpable hostility by tens of thousands of people on Internet social networking sites such as Facebook. Displeasure has also been directed towards the Philippine government, which was seen as doing a poor job at being available when it was needed most.

But what is not comprehensible is why people have vented their frustrations on Filipinos. They’ve done nothing wrong, after all. The actions of a unit of police commandos was not their doing. Tarring them with the same brush of incompetence isn’t right.

Such behavior towards them smacks of racism. A tinge of that is on show in the government’s response to the tragedy. It has issued its highest travel alert for those thinking of going to the Philippines. Based on a single isolated incident, it has determined that a severe threat exists and that all travel should be avoided. The only other countries on the alert list—Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia and Thailand—are ranked two levels lower, with travelers being advised to “exercise caution.”

The response is knee-jerk, but punishes Filipinos as a race for an incident that they had nothing to do with. Travel bans are for safety, not political retribution. Similarly, anger at Philippine president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino maybe understandable, but he doesn’t deserve the abuse being hurled at him in blog postings or on placards like one carried at a protest outside the Philippine Consulate General yesterday reading, “Cold-blooded Aquino - Go to hell.”

Statements tike this are not rational or reasonable. All they do is stir needless hatred.

Passions are running high, and that is to be expected. Questions abound and we want answers. But the 150,000 Filipinos who live among us in Hong Kong and the untold millions in the Philippines who rely on our business and tourism dollars cannot provide what we want to know. They are as much innocent bystanders to the tragedy as we are and deserve to be treated as such.