The BACIWA Employees Union (BEU) continues to oppose any form of privatization of the Bacolod City Water District (BACIWA), it said in a statement released on Thursday, Dec. 18.
The announcement that PrimeWater has been sold to the Lucio Co Group clearly shows that Bacolod City’s officials have no intention of returning the operation of our water district to the government, despite the utter failure of the PrimeWater-BACIWA Joint Venture Agreement (JVA), the statement sent by BEU Vice President Benjie Oray said.
“This situation exposes a disturbing reality: basic public services like water can be casually passed from one private company to another, from Villar-owned PrimeWater to Lucio Co’s Group, without any real accountability for years of abuse, neglect, and substandard service suffered by consumers,” the BEU said.
Quality of service, public welfare, and responsibility are all treated as secondary to corporate interests, it added.
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For five years, the abuses of PrimeWater and its blatant non-compliance with the JVA were covered up by local officials, BEU claimed.
“Now that PrimeWater is in hot water, it is simply being sold to another private entity. Is this the solution?” it asked.
Where is the accountability? Will PrimeWater be allowed to walk away without consequences? Is this yet another attempt to fool the Bacolodnons? BEU further asked.
This JVA was illegal from the very start, it said.
“The BACIWA Employees Union calls for accountability, transparency, and justice. Public utilities must serve the people-not private profits,” the BEU said.*