Manila Water chief Almendras apologizes to Duterte

Manila Water president and chief executive officer Jose Rene Almendras apologized Wednesday to President Rodrigo Duterte for angering him over the decision of an international court that the Philippine government should pay the water company P7.3 billion.

Upon the questioning of Senator Christopher "Bong" Go during the Senate hearing on water issues, Almendras said that Duterte's anger is the reason the company will no longer ask the government to pay the amount.

“Humihingi po kami ng paumanhin kung nagalit siya dahil sa arbitral ruling. Kaya ho namin inatras ang arbitral ruling dahil nagsalita na po ang Pangulo na hindi niya gusto ito. Kami naman po nakakaintindi, marunong naman po kaming makaintindi, kaya kami nagpasya na hindi na lang po namin itutuloy,” he said.

Go asked again why they waived the implementation of the arbitral ruling, and Almendras replied they do not want to anger the President.

“It is unfortunate na nagalit ang Pangulo. Hindi po namin pagnanasa na magbigay ng problema sa Pangulo. Lahat po ng pagkakataon na ibinigay sa amin, kung saan po kami pwedeng tumulong, tumutulong kami,” he said.

“Dahil nag-react na ang Pangulo, ayaw naming galitin ang Pangulo. Susunod po kami sa Pangulo. Siya po ang leader ng ating bansa,” he added.

Almendras said they have no control over the issuance of the decision by an arbitration court in Singapore for a case they filed in 2015.

“The arbitral ruling was really to clarify the procedure po on how do we compute. Ganun naman po ‘yun pag merong kontrata tapos hindi tayo nagkasundo sa interpretasyon,” he said.

“Ang nangyari po hindi namin mapigilan na lalabas ang desisyon dahil na-file na po ‘yun nung 2015. So nung lumabas ang desisyon hindi namin kontrolado kung kailan lalabas, kailan sasabihin. Ayaw po naming kalabanin ang Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte. Mabuti po ang ginagawa niya para sa taumbayan, sumusuporta po kami,” Almendras added.

Go then asked for it to be put on the record that the reason the water concessionaires decided to drop the arbitral award is because it angered Duterte. — BM, GMA News