MANILA, July 25 – The Philippine government has yet to decide on its move regarding the Arbitral Tribunal’s decision favoring Maynilad Water Services (Maynilad) on its compensation claims on losses from delayed implementation of rate hikes.
“I will have to get the OSG’s (Office of the Solicitor General) opinion,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III told reporters Thursday.
Maynilad, in a disclosure with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Tuesday, said the three-man Tribunal, in its July 24, 2017 decision, “unanimously upheld the validity of Maynilad’s claim against the Undertaking Letter issued by the Republic, through the Department of Finance, to compensate Maynilad for the delayed implementation of its relevant tariffs for the rebasing period 2013 to 2017.”
It said the Undertaking Letter tasks the government to pay the water and waste water services provider for losses registered because the company was prevented from increasing rates as stipulated under the Concession Agreement (CA) dated Feb. 21, 1997.
The Tribunal has ordered the government to pay the water services unit of Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp. PHP3.424 billion for losses incurred from March 11, 2015 until Aug. 31, 2016, it said.
Maynilad said the Tribunal also cited that the company was not prevented from collecting from the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System losses from January 1, 2013 to March 10, 2015 and from the government any losses registered from Sept. 1, 2016 onwards. (PNA)
