IN the recent Saturday Forum@Annabel’s, we had as our guest child-rights advocate Atty. Eric Mallonga, who is the executive director of an orphanage, Meritzell Children’s World Foundation, which its web site describes as “a loving and caring environment for abandoned, neglected, orphaned and abused children.”
At the outset, Mallonga argued that a foundling like presidential aspirant Grace Poe is a natural-born citizen and therefore should be allowed to run for the highest elective position in the country. While both the 1935 and the 1987 Constitutions do not contain any explicit provisions on the rights of foundlings, Mallonga said both documents presume that foundlings are natural-born citizens and should, thus, be allowed to become professionals, or even run for president.
International conventions to which the Philippines is a signatory—and which the Constitution recognizes as part of the law of the land—also guarantee the rights of foundlings to a name and a nationality, among others, he added.
The disqualification cases against Poe assert that she is not a natural-born citizen and does not fulfill the 10-year residency requirement since she stayed in the US for some time.
While the nine-member Senate Electoral Tribunal ruled that she is a natural-born citizen and therefore eligible to run as senator and keep her position, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ruled otherwise. Thus, Poe has filed an appeal before the Supreme Court (SC) to reverse the Comelec ruling. The oral arguments will be heard today, January 19, by the SC.
Sen. Francis Escudero has urged Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, the SET chairman who argued that Poe is not a natural-born citizen, to inhibit from participating in the disqualification case against his running mate.
“Senator Grace’s lawyers also asked for his inhibition. I hope he will consider it and inhibit himself in order to address such doubts from some sectors regarding his impartiality in connection with the cases of Senator Poe,” Escudero said. Poe filed last month petitions before the SC to prevent Carpio and Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Arturo Brion from joining deliberations of the tribunal.
For his part, Mallonga says that since Justice Carpio during the SET hearings specifically pronounced that Poe is not a natural-born citizen but just a naturalized citizen, the jurist made a conclusive pronouncement that showed his bias and preconceived notion against her.
“A mere clarificatory hearing is not supposed to hear the arguments of the justices or the senators but to hear the stand or positions of the parties involved. So I really believe that the justices who actually made such pronouncements should inhibit themselves from the deliberations on the qualifications of Senator Poe as a candidate for the position of president,” Mallonga said at the news forum.
“During the clarificatory hearing, [what Carpio said] was actually not a clarification. He issued a conclusion of the law and not a clarification.” For this reason, Carpio committed “grave abuse of discretion,” Mallonga said.
“If you are still hearing a case, you should not make any conclusion of law because the conclusion of law should come out in your decision,” he said.
Poe is a foundling adopted by the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. and his wife Susan Roces. She was found inside the Jaro Cathedral in Iloilo in 1968. The 1935 Constitution was in effect at the time of her birth.
Relief for water consumers
Water consumers in Metro Manila and portions of Cavite can expect sufficient water supply in the years ahead, as Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MWSI)—one of the two water concessionaires in the area—is spending a total of P13.6 billion on capital expenditures (capex) this year.
Maynilad’s planned capex spending will benefit consumers and the economy.
One, its huge outlay for infrastructure works will ensure a steady, adequate supply of clean water for West Zone consumers and allow it to launch pipeline-expansion projects for city folks in remote communities who continue to buy expensive water from informal suppliers or vendors.
Of Maynilad’s capex budget, P3.9 billion will go to the construction, rehabilitation and upgrade of reservoirs, pumping stations and water-treatment plants; P2 billion for non-revenue water (NRW) reduction programs, like leak repairs and pipe replacements; P4.6 billion for the construction of sewage-treatment plants or improvement of existing plants in Manila, Quezon City and Cavite; and P1.2 billion for building conveyance systems and development of sewerage facilities in Quezon City and Valenzuela.
The rest of the budget will be used, among others, to modernize Maynilad’s data management and information systems, develop new water sources, and refurbish its facilities in the Bicti basins and Ipo Dam.
Two, Maynilad’s infrastructure works will help sustain the domestic economy as its significant capex spending is projected to create 41,243 jobs in its concession area.
And three, Maynilad’s capex budget underscores its firm commitment to consumer welfare, considering that it has chosen to set aside such a big amount to improve and even expand its water-delivery services despite its ongoing legal tussle abroad with the Manila Waterwork and Sewerage System (MWSS), which involves the regulatory agency’s continued rejection for three years now of key provisions of their 1997 privatization deal.
Maynilad filed two successive arbitration cases before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Singapore last year following the refusal of the MWSS to follow the terms of the firm’s original concession contract with the government in 1997 on a rate-rebasing mechanism that would allow the concessionaire to adjust its water rates once every three years.
Maynilad has been allotting some P10 billion yearly for its operations, including projects to improve water delivery to customers and expand service to cover more areas. Because such improvement or expansion programs take years to finish, the rate-rebasing process done once every three years is intended to make Maynilad plan its financial requirements and recover its multibillion-peso capex or investments.
The water situation was so dire two decades ago that Congress passed the National Crisis Act (Republic Act 8041) in 1995, empowering the government to modernize MWSS’s debt-saddled and inefficient operations by privatizing them.
Under the privatization program, MWSS’s franchise area—covering the entire Metro Manila and Rizal plus parts of Cavite—was split into the West and East zones, and its many contractors and service providers were replaced by just one exclusive contractor or concessionaire for each zone.
Consistent with the privatization program prepared by MWSS with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and two consultants—the World Bank’s International Finance Corp. and NERA Economic Consulting—the concessions were publicly auctioned off in 1997, with Maynilad and Manila Water winning the concessions for the respective West and East zones.
However, financial and legal troubles forced the original West Zone concessionaire—Benpres Holdings Corp.—to return the concession to MWSS in 2004. Two years later the Metro Pacific Investments Corp.-DMCI consortium won the exclusive rights to provide water and wastewater services to the West Zone.
To attract big-time investors, the government offered provisions in the 1997 privatization contracts allowing would-be concessionaires to recover their multibillion-peso investments in the course of their long-term service contracts. Among these provisions was allowing concessionaires to pass on certain corporate taxes to their customers in their monthly bills.
E-mail: ernhil:@yahoo.com.