The general manager of the Bacolod City Water District sought the assistance of the police after allegedly being informed that four vehicles kept passing by the office, where she was holed in, at about 10 p.m. Friday.

Juliana Carbon, who was ordered suspended Thursday by the Board for 30 days and barred from entering the Baciwa premises, said all their managers and key personnel were on duty even during the weekend because of the report about the four vehicles and an attempt to enter the premises.

“If they enter, the facility might be in danger. So we decided to stay at the Baciwa administration office to be on top of the situation,” she said.

Carbon said the employees outside the Baciwa office after a prayer vigil and candle lighting activity Friday were alarmed by the vehicles. If the employees did not shout, the vehicles did not go away, she said.

She said she wants to know the owner of the vehicle, with plate no FEH 275, as it might lead them to the suspects.

She added that employees feel they should hold a barricade to protect those inside the office.

Meanwhile, Baciwa director Marichi Ramos said such reports are not true and they should stop creating a scenario.

Ramos said she went to the Baciwa office to check what happened and why the guards allowed employees to enter the building despite the order. If there are documents that will be missing, they will be held accountable for that, she said.

Ramos said there was an office memorandum issued before that employees cannot enter the Baciwa office after 7 p.m., except for those in charge of customer service. They only implemented a standing policy following Carbon's suspension because they want to protect the documents. “If we do not do that, who will?” she asked.

GROUNDS FOR SUSPENSION

The grounds for Carbon's suspension, as cited by the Board, include her alleged willful misrepresentation of the Murcia Water District bulk water supply contract with Baciwa, the appointment of officers-in-charge, and giving RATA without the approval of the Board;

Alleged fraudulent certificate of completion and final acceptance without Board authority, and without the project having been completed as part of the P537 million loan in phase II, non-disclosure of the 7.5 kilometer pipeline from Granada to Burgos-Lopez Jaena, which was not interconnected to the Baciwa system since 2008;

Non-disclosure of the P241 million retained earnings of Baciwa, non-reporting of the 750 KVA generator as part of the Baciwa assets, non-disclosure of the Mansilingan reservoir and the six booster pumps which allegedly have not been utilized as part of the P537 million loan;

Continuous disbursement of employees' allowance which were previously disallowed by the Commission on Audit, abnormally high non-revenue water, and her consistent refusal to meet with the chairman in the board room for conferences relative to Baciwa matters, amounting to insubordination.

DISCONNECTION

Meanwhile, chairman of the Board Lawrence Villanueva ordered the disconnection of electricity at the Baciwa office between 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. “to conserve energy and to reduce cost”, following a Board resolution approved Saturday.

Carbon, however, claimed that, “These people have no idea that this is the time we back up the files of our customers' billings and collection. We need 24 hours electricity because we have water samples being incubated. If the electricity is cut off, the results will not be accurate so we need 24 hours electricity in the building.”

“We hope an independent agency or court will help resolve the issue. I cannot abide with an unlawful order because that will be detrimental to the operation of the water district,” she also said.

Carbon said Villanueva's term will expire on December 31, 2014, unless it is extended by the Mayor. She also claimed that the three directors protested the appointment of a sixth member of the Board because time is running out. If they are planning to push for something, it should be now, she said referring to the proposed contract with Miya to reduce non-revenue water losses through a P7.88 billion (exclusive of interest) 15-year project.

HIRING OF LAWYER

Carbon said she will do everything to ensure that their services will not be affected and that she is hiring the legal services of retired Judge Lorna Demonteverde and her son.

She said she has been instructed to update the Local Water Utilities Administration on what is happening in Baciwa, adding that she will also inform Bacolod Mayor Monico Puentevella about the situation.

Puentevella will hold a dialog with the Baciwa employees and members of the Board at 2 p.m. today at the Baciwa office.

Ramos, who was in Manila yesterday, said they heard Carbon has hired the services of goons. Nobody wanted to accept the designation of an officer-in-charge because they are being threatened, she said.

She said Senator Bam Aquino will issue a statement on the matter.

Carbon also said that management and key personnel are manning and monitoring the administrative building and all facilities to ensure water safety.

Meanwhile, Bacolod Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr. criticized the three Board directors of Baciwa as inconsistent in their claims regarding the financial status of the water district, in a press statement he issued yesterday.

Gamboa said Villanueva, Ramos and Lorendo Dilag have created a doomsday scenario and espousing the bogeyman theory in the position papers they published last year, claiming that “BACIWA is not in ICU or in extremis, but dead.”

He said they were referring then to Baciwa losses of P2.4 billion, citing the non-revenue water as a major factor to justify the need to enter into a private-public-partnership with a private foreign invested corporation Miya-Maynilad for Baciwa to contract a 15-year expansion program of P7.88 billion (exclusive of interest).

CORRECT FIGURES

Ramos, however, said “We need somebody from the outside so we will know the correct figures. They (Baciwa officials) are not giving us the correct figures like in the Murcia Water District contract.”

She said she is the chairman of finance and she has the documents to show this.

Ramos said Gamboa should review first the documents at hand before he opens his mouth. She said she had told him before that if he needs the documents, he could get them from her. He should not just get one side, which is that of the management.

She said she has been receiving a lot of complaints that Baciwa is not giving good service.

Carbon was given due process and made to explain for this, she also said.*CGS

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