PrimeWater, owned by the Villar family, has been sold, Bacolod Rep. Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez said on Monday, Dec. 15.
PrimeWater, which has been the subject of numerous complaints nationwide for poor services, has been in a joint venture agreement with the Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa).
The Villar group’s water utility firm took over the operations of Baciwa in 2020 following the signing of a 25-year JVA.
Benitez, in an interview on the program Straight to the Point over DYHB RMN Monday morning, said the Villars
have sold PrimeWater, and the new owner is set to come in.
The sale was concluded late last week, he said.
Benitez did not name the group that bought PrimeWater but said an announcement is expected this week.
The company that will takeover is already in the water business and has not been subject to complaints in its areas of coverage, he said.
Benitez said when he became mayor of Bacolod the water supply of PrimeWater was at 60 to 70 million liters a day, when the target was 100 MLD. This has since been achieved, he said.
The second issue is that the pipes and other facilities of the Bacolod water system need to be replaced because they are old, he said.
Baciwa has estimated that P1.5 billion is needed for the modernization and improvement of water services in Bacolod, he said.
What is important is that the new firm invests in modernization, he added.
“I told Baciwa to avoid a messy court case, it should convince the new owner of PrimeWater to improve the provisions of the JVA, which is a bit one sided,” he said.
That message has been conveyed to the new owner of PrimeWater, along with the need to invest about P1.5B for the modernization of water services in Bacolod, he added.
The new owner of PrimeWater has experience in the water business, and the technical and financial capability, Benitez said.
The new firm is definitely much better than PrimeWater of the Villars, he said.
Benitez also said he has no problem with other water concessionaries entering into Bacolod because more competition will benefit consumers.*