Duterte: No deadline for Maynilad, Manila Water to accept new terms of concession deals

President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday he has not set a deadline for water companies Maynilad and Manila Water to decide whether to accept the amended concession agreements.

“I am not hurrying them up,” Duterte told reporters in Malacañang when asked for a timeframe.

The Palace said the draft agreements do not contain provisions allegedly disadvantageous to the government and the consumers.

Should Maynilad and Manila Water refuse to accept the new agreements, Duterte will order the cancellation of their present water contracts, mandate the nationalization of water services in their respective areas of operation, and prosecute all those involved in the current arrangement, his spokesperson Salvador Panelo said on Tuesday.

The President confirmed this.

“I am proposing a new contract. You accept it,” he said.

“And if it's to your liking, sign it. If you don't, then there is no water, I will order the military to take over and I will nationalize the water, and then I will file the corresponding charges.”

Duterte has publicly protested a liability clause in the concession agreements that holds the government liable if it interferes with the implementation of water rates and accountable to indemnify the companies for losses incurred.

The government has already revoked the extension of the concession agreements up to 2037 as these were approved way before the existing contracts were supposed to expire in 2022.  —LDF, GMA News