ILOILO CITY, (PNA) -– The power to appoint the members of the board of the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) has shifted from the Iloilo City Hall to the Iloilo Provincial Capitol.
This developed after Regional Trial Court Judge Danilo Galvez affirmed the findings of a body he created to look into the number of active concessionaires of MIWD to determine as who between the governor and the mayor has power to appoint the members of the board of the water district.
Section 3 of Presidential Decree No. 198 or the Local Water District Law provides that if more than 75 percent of the total concessionaires are found in the city, the appointing authority shall be the city mayor.
But, if the total number of concessionaires in the city is below 75 percent, the appointing authority shall be the governor.
The Fact Finding Commission, in a report dated June 13, 2013, found that the total number of concessionaires in Iloilo City as of April 30 was only 21,130, or 66.14 percent of the total number of concessionaires in the entire MIWD coverage area, which is 31,948.
The combined number of concessionaires from towns of Cabatuan, Leganes, Maasin, Oton, Pavia, San Miguel and Santa Barbara reached 10,818 or 33.86 percent of the grand total.
Galvez approved the Commission’s report on September 16, 2013.
Provincial Legal Officer Dennis Ventilacion hoped that the recent development has settled the conflict and confusion as to who really has the power to appoint the members of the MIWD board.
The Commissions was composed of Ventilacion as chairperson, with former City Legal Officer Jose Junio Jacela, RTC Branch 24 Legal Researcher Nida Gavan, Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) representative Rosemarie Marquez and reporter Jay Balnig.