Federation of government employees unions COURAGE said the dismissal of 60 employees violated the constitutional and legal rights of government employees to security of tenure.
The joint venture, says the BEU and others against the joint venture, would turn water from a natural resource to a profit-generating commodity, to the detriment of consumers. For starters, the union says, a 12 percent value-added tax will be automatically tacked onto water bills once the deal is closed.
Focusing on just Manila Water diverts the issue away from privatization as the central issue in, and underlying reason behind, the artificial shortage. As such, it also has the effect of absolving government of responsibility when in fact, the biggest accountability in all this lies with government for abandoning its duty to ensure water for the people.
Bayan Muna lawmakers asked the Supreme Court to stop this virtual “transfer of power to a private entity,” or transfer of power to decide on matters that are within the purview of MWSS, as the government regulating agency, to the concessionaires or to a private arbitration/appeals panel, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce.