Illegality no excuse for failure

Cebu City mayor Edgardo Labella fired the entire board of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District for failing to solve the water problems in the city. Put another way, the entire MCWD board was sought to be relieved for gross inefficiency. But the board resisted. All members hung on to their posts. They said the mayor did not have the authority to fire them. Put another way, they said it was illegal for the mayor to do so.

The mayor, however, was correct in wanting to fire them. There is basis for his loss of confidence in the entire board. The water problems of Cebu City are very palpable in every home or business establishment that relies on MCWD for its water needs. When there is little or no water coming out of your taps and there is no assurance things will change for the better in the future, you do not need a mayor to tell you that you have a water problem.

But the MCWD board is also correct. The mayor can only appoint members to the board but cannot fire or suspend them. He cannot even meddle in its affairs. Clearly there is a flaw in there somewhere and the board is not to blame for that. The board did not have a hand in crafting the law that created and now governs water utilities.

With that out of the way in all clarity, let me now say this: I do not think the affairs of society, or the world for that matter, should be anchored entirely on legality. Just because the MCWD board is legally correct in resisting the termination order of the mayor does not mean the mayor was wrong in his appreciation of their performance.

The members of the MCWD board may win their case in any courtroom in the land but when their own consumers open their taps and the only thing that comes out is air, the board can never expect to hear a single congratulations for the legal correctness and appropriateness of their resistance to the mayor's termination order.

The MCWD controversy is not about legality. It is about service and efficiency. Nobody really gives a damn about legality when it comes to water. Water is life. Like air, people will die without water. Without water, people will kill. As they say with increasing urgency and reality, the next great war will be about water. If that war comes today, all the legalities in the world will not save a single neck within the MCWD board.

Let me repeat. The MCWD controversy is not about legality. It is about service and efficiency. If you fail in these two basic requirements for an honorable stay in the board, then for shame resign. Do not hang on to your seat because you are a failure and do not deserve it. Do not hide behind what the law says or does not say. The law will not draw water from anywhere and bring it to those who need it.

It is the MCWD board that does that. It is the job and the responsibility of the MCWD board to do that. And it has miserably failed. Labella may have misappreciated both the law and his own authority in ordering the termination of the MCWD board. That does not mean the board does not deserve to be terminated. In their own defense, the board merely put up legal resistance. They never cited performance. They cannot defend what is indefensible.