THE Senate is set to hear the certified urgent Senate Bill No. 2595 containing the bid of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) for an increase in its authorized capitalization and borrowing capacities when it resumes session on the first week of June.

LWUA Administrator Orlando Hondrade stressed the need for a Senate hearing which will pave way for the eventual approval of the LWUA Bill in order for the agency to fastrack the establishment of more water districts and undertake expansion and modernization of existing water districts. This is in connection with LWUA’s responsibility to provide safe and potable water supply to all barangays in the countryside and at the same time institute reforms in the provincial water sector.

Before the Senate adjourned for the election break in February, President Arroyo had already certified the necessity of the immediate enactment of SB No. 2595, embodying among others an increase in LWUA’s authorized cap to P50 billion and its domestic and foreign borrowings to P1 billion and US$1 billion, respectively.

In certifying the LWUA Bill, President Arroyo earlier said that the Congress should “address a public emergency arising from the urgent need to provide potable water supply to the rapidly increasing population in the country’s fast urbanizing towns and cities, consistent with the country’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG).” At present, only 13.5 million Filipinos in the countryside have access to safe and potable water.

In his letters recently sent to Senate President Manuel Villar, Majority Floorleader Francisco Pangilinan and the rest of the senators, Hondrade requested the solons to include SB No. 2595 in the Senate agenda on its resumption of session starting on June 4.

Hondrade expressed optimism that the Senate will include the LWUA Bill in its order of business on June 4 and thereafter approve the measure on third and final reading before the adjournment of the 13th Congress.

Hondrade added that with the Malacañang’s certification, LWUA and the whole Provincial Water Supply Sector foresee the Senate’s approval of SB No. 2595 and its eventual signing into law by President Arroyo.

The certified urgent measure, which was submitted jointly by the Senate Committees on Public Works, Public Services, Ways and Means and Finance, seeks to increase LWUA’s capitalization which was fully subscribed as early as 1992.

Under SB No. 2595, LWUA’s capitalization shall be subscribed by the National Government and opened to subscription by private investors or government financial institutions (GFIs) while the agency shall have the authority to borrow money from all domestic loan sources whether government or private.
c May 25 , 2007