Capitol wants power to appoint new members of MCWD board

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia now wants the province of Cebu to be given the appointing power to put new members of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District Board once there will be outgoing members, considering that there are now more water concessionaires in the province as against in the city of Cebu, as mandated by law.

"We will now look into that," she said in a news conference yesterday afternoon.

The governor pointed out that in the Charter of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District, it is provided that should the water concessionaires in the city fall below 75 percent of the total concessionaires of MCWD then the power to appoint will be given to the provincial government.

She explained that the reason why Cebu City has the authority to appoint members of the board is because in the past the number of water concessionaires in the city was higher than that in the province. But this is no longer the case today.

"It will be good that the governor will now be given the authority to appoint if there is an outgoing board member. I'm sure Mayor Tommy also recognizes that," she said.

The FREEMAN tried to get the comment of MCWD board chairman Juan Saul Montecillo but he could not entertain interviews yesterday, as the board meeting lasted until around 7 p.m. - Cristina C. Birondo