Govt contract reviews could affect investments
Malacañang’s push to review allegedly “onerous” contracts could affect investor interest in the Philippines, the chairman of one of of the targeted firms claimed on Thursday.
“Yes,” Maynilad Water Services Inc. Chairman Manuel Pangilinan replied when asked by reporters if President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to review all government contracts represented a “predicament for future investments.”
He did not elaborate.
Duterte last week told all goverment agencies to review contracts with private firms and foreign investors, a decision said to have been prompted by a massive water shortage blamed on Maynilad competitor Manila Water Co. Inc.
Maynilad is currently embroiled in arbitration against the government over tariff adjustments and Pangilinan earlier this week said they were willing to drop the case.
Malacañang, however, has remained combative, with Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo warning that criminal cases could be filed if Maynilad’s concession deal was found to be detrimental to consumers.
The arbitration case was triggered after the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s (MWSS) rejected Maynilad’s request for tariff increases for 2013-2017.
Singapore’s high court has sided with the water firm, ordering the government to pay P3.42 billion for the overdue tariff hike.
“[I]t’s stipulated in the contractual arrangement, that was the right given to us under the contract. We’re just exercising it,” Pangilinan stressed on Thursday.
“It did not happen during this government but in the previous government. And guess what? They just ignored us,” he added.
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