The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) said the leadership dispute at the Leyte Metropolitan Water District (LMWD) created by the appointees of Tacloban City Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez has been settled by the courts.
Thus, LWUA’s leadership expressed hope the LMWD would function and operate smoothly and effectively like before Romualdez appointed her supporters to the Board of Directors (BOD) of the LMWD on December 17, 2017.
LWUA is the principal government agency that monitors, guides, and leads all the water districts in various parts of the country.
The people appointed by Romualdez included Roberto V. Muñoz, Bautista G. Corpin Jr., Jennylyn Polistico-Manibay, Bernardita B. Valenzuela and Sharilee Gaspay-Mauro. They petitioned the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Tacloban City by strongly claiming they are the legal board members of the LMWD.
Judge Leonito S. Sabandal of Tacloban City RTC Branch 9 said in his decision “the respondents ought to be respected in their status as incumbent members of the Board of Directors of the LMWD, which was the prevailing status at the time [when] this petition was filed up until January 17, 2018.”
The respondents being referred to by Sabandal are Teodoro M. de Veyra, Teresa A. Montubig, Iluminado L. Lantajo Jr., Aldin C. Surpia and Dr. Alice U. Blas.
In effect, the judge dismissed the petition of Muñoz, Corpin Jr., Polistico-Manibay, Valenzuela and Gaspay-Mauro who have claimed that they are the real BOD members.
Sabandal asserted in his ruling that, “The end result is that respondents ought to remain as incumbent Board of Directors until removed by competent authorities or by the courts. As such, in order not to confuse the public in general, and the LMWD employees in particular, petitioners should refrain from representing themselves as members of the Board of Directors until they are declared as such by the Court as what they prayed for in their petition, which unfortunately they now have abandoned.”
“The petitioners filed an instant Petition for Quo Warranto because they sought for recognition as the alleged newly appointed Board of Directors of LMWD,” the judge said.
“By filing the said petition, petitioners impliedly admitted that respondents are the incumbent Board of Directors, albeit they question the legality thereof,” he argued.