Speaking at Kapehan sa Davao at SM City Davao, Duhaylungsod said when they submitted their request for the water rate increase last year, DCWD was already anticipating that a petition will be filed against the move, however , she said nobody opposed it.
“There were none. Actually when we were submitting the request to the LWUA, sa mga gina-anticipate nato is the petition for us not to implement the increase, but fortunately, there were none,” she said.
Duhaylungsod said that even during the public hearing last December 2021, none of the participants had opposed the water rate hike, except for a few customers who raised their hesitations.
“The LWUA would just want for some improvement labaw na sa dili 24 hours ang supply. Between the public hearing and until it was approved by LWUA in July this year, wala man poy petition nga nagbabag sa increase,” she added.
If there are petitions it should be lodged through LWUA since it is the regulating and approving agency. But in case there are petitions filed, DCWD will immediately be notified, she said.
“If naay may mga petition it would be based also on our explanation because it would also require us to answer. We asked for this last year and for more than 6 months wala may nagpetition sa LWUA regarding the matter,” she said.
Duhaylungsod earlier announced that DCWD is implementing the water rate adjustment of 30 percent starting this month.
The minimum charge before the 30 percent adjustment is P137.30, but with the increase, it will now be at P178.50.
The 30 percent is the first of the three- tranche implementation program of the 60 percent that they requested from LWUA, seeing it as the most justifiable, Duhaylungsod said.
“We have laid out the ten-year development program that would necessitate the 60 percent increase. They have found that all of these programs would help improve our services and operation in the city,” Duhaylungsod further said.
“The 60 percent that we requested supposedly dapat i implement one-time but to cushion the effect of the water rate adjustment sa ating mga customers considering that we had just recovered economically from COVID, we will be implementing the first 30 percent this year,” she said.
DCWD will be imposing the remaining 20 percent in 2023 and the last 10 percent in 2024.
“But based on our year-end financial evaluation, that remains to be seen. If we can see that the 30 percent adjustment is already enough to fund our remaining programs, we will definitely resort to implementing the remaining tranches. But in the same way if after the financial evaluation that the 30 percent is still not enough then we will move forward in implementing the remaining tranches,” Duhaylungsod pointed out.
File Photo: DCWD spokesperson Jovana Cresta Duhaylungsod