Archive for January, 2008
FDC-Iloilo condemns ICPO harassment, arrests during Dinagyang
Press Statement
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) – Iloilo
Contact Person:
Ted Aldwin Ong, Secretary-General @ 0915-7747413
Telefax: 509-0051, Email: fdciloilo@gmail.com / ted.fdciloilo@gmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
28 January 2008
FDC-Iloilo condemns ICPO harassment, arrests during Dinagyang
The Freedom from Debt Coalition condemns the arrests effected by the personnel of the Iloilo City Police Office under the command of Major Conrad Carganillo to five (5) of our members and the harassment and intimidation of our members by his team at the height of the Dinagyang mardi gras festival Sunday afternoon, January 27.
The organizations under FDC has been joining the Dinagyang festival for the last 10 years with the “Worker’s Tribe” to celebrate the festivity by bringing our calls and demands and campaigns and advocacy to the fore of the Ilonggo public in order to raise the public’s awareness on issues that has significant impact to their lives as citizens and taxpayers.
This year we hoisted the call to STOP TOXIC WASTES TRADE! JUNK JPEPA! JUNK SEN. MAR ROXAS!
We believe Sen. Roxas is betraying the Filipino people by pushing for the ratification of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). Facts reveal that no less than Sen. Roxas have expressed concerns that the Philippines has minimal inherent gains in the JPEPA yet still he is aggressively pushing for the ratification of the Treaty.
Likewise, we believe that JPEPA violates the right of Filipino workers, thus anti-workers, and will give way for the entry of Japan’s toxic wastes to Philippine shores. As we have filed our petition before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, we believe that it is our duty to as a campaigns organization to inform the public on the grave impact to the Filipino people once we permit this Treaty to be ratified.
The Dinagyang mardi gras is one such opportunity. By all accounts, the members of FDC were peacefully parading bringing streamers, Chinese banners and flags in front of the symbolic Freedom Grandstand together with other groups when Maj. Carganillo singled-out FDC, approached its members and demanded for a copy of a parade permit. A requirement that is unnecessary during the mardi gra.
Further. Maj. Carganillo demanded that we put down our streamers and banners if we wish to continue with the parade – a request that our group granted.
However, as the group was already moving around a block away, the mobile patrols of the Iloilo City Police Office blocked our way with Maj. Carganillo effecting forceful arrests to our members, whisking them to Police Precinct 1 for negotiation citing we violated the agreement – a claim that is clearly a fabrication.
Since no formal complaint was leveled against FDC members, we assert that it was a violation of our basic human rights and of our rights to free expression. We criticize the higher authority of the local PNP by tolerating its officers’ acts of harassment and intimidation towards the members of FDC. This is clearly an abuse of power by the local police.
Lastly, we deplore Maj. Carganillo and what he revealed as a high profile politician behind the orders that FDC be taken out of the streets on grounds that our slogans are embarrassing to politicians and tourists.
We believe that the harassment, intimidation, sabotage and abuse of authority by the local police and by stifling the voices of the people is more than just embarrassing, it is stupid and condemnable. ###
Add comment January 28, 2008
FDC In The News: Motion for Reconsideration filed before the Supreme Court
Malaya
29 January 2008
http://www.malaya.com.ph/jan29/metro2.htm
NGOs appeal SC’s junking of case on water firms’ profit margin
By Evangeline de Vera
NON-government organizations yesterday asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its previous ruling upholding the validity of two resolutions of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) which declared that Maynilad Water Services and Manila Water Co. are not public utilities and are thus exempt from the 12-percent profit margin limitation.
In a motion for reconsideration, petitioners Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), Akbayan Citizen’s Action Party, Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) said the ruling of the SC would pass on to consumers the two water concessionaires’ corporate income taxes.
Assailed by petitioners are the MWSS Board Resolution No. 2004-2001 and MWSS-Regional Office (RO) Resolution No. 04-006-CA, which classified Manila Water (for the east zone) and Maynilad Water (for the west zone) as mere agents and exempt from the 12-percent profit margin limitation under Section 12 of the MWSS Charter.
GMANews.TV
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/78321/SC-asked-to-reconsider-rule-favoring-Manila-Water-Maynilad#
SC asked to reconsider rule favoring Manila Water, Maynilad
Article posted January 28, 2008 – 06:38 PM
At least three non-government organizations on Monday asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling exempting the Manila Water Company, Inc. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. from the 12-percent profit limit under the Charter of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS).
In a five-page motion for reconsideration, the Freedom from Debt Coalition, Akbayan Citizen’s Action’s Party, and the Alliance of Progressive Labor claimed that the high court’s ruling would burden consumers, because Manila Water and Maynilad’s corporate taxes would be indirectly shouldered by end users.
Earlier, the MWSS issued two resolutions stating that its two concessionaires — Manila Water and Maynilad — were not public utilities, and thus exempted from the 12 percent profit limit. The resolutions were upheld by the Supreme Court.
Inquirer.Net
Breaking News / Metro
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20080128-115321/SC-asked-to-reconsider-ruling-on-MWSS-row
SC asked to reconsider ruling on MWSS row
By Tetch Torres
INQUIRER.net
Posted date: January 28, 2008
MANILA, Philippines — Cause-oriented groups, led by the Freedom from Debt Coalition, (FDC) have asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling dismissing their petition over the the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) resolution concerning the rate of return of investment.
The FDC, together with Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party and the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), told the high court that their petition was not a case of “contesting the rates or fees of water or sewerage services.”
As such this does not fall within the exclusive original jurisdiction of the National Water Resources Board (NWRB).
“What we submitted last June 2006 was a petition to annul two MWSS resolutions which declared the two water concessionaires —Manila Water Company, Inc. (MWCI) and Maynilad Water Services, Inc. (MWSI) — as ‘mere agents’ and not as public utilities,” said FDC vice president Edwin Chavez.
“We are not contesting the rates granted by the two MWSS bodies to the water companies, but the legal validity of their declaration that these water concessionaires are not public utilities. We firmly believe they are public utilities,” Chavez said.
Add comment January 28, 2008
SC asked to reconsider decision on petition to annul two MWSS resolutions
At around 1:30 this afternoon, the Freedom from Debt Coalition, et al, filed a motion for reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s decision regarding our petition to invalidate two MWSS resolutions that declared Manila Water and Maynilad as ‘mere agents’ and not as public utilities. FDC vice president Edwin Chavez led our small contingent. Fortunately, we had a full media coverage.
PRESS RELEASE
Freedom from Debt Coalition
11 Matimpiin St., Brgy. Pinyahan, Quezon City 1100
Tel. No.: +632 9211985; Telefax: +632 9246399
Email: fdc_media@yahoo.com
Contact persons:
Edwin Chavez, FDC vice president, @ 0920-9607084
Bobby Diciembre, FDC media bureau, @ 0920-9059856
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
28 January 2008
SC asked to reconsider decision on petition to annul two MWSS resolutions
Leaders of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), the Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party and the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) today filed a motion for reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s decision on the petition to annul two Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) resolutions that violated existing laws and jurisprudence on public utilities.
The groups stressed that the two MWSS resolutions—Resolution No. 2004-201 of the MWSS Board of Trustees and Resolution No. 04-006-CA of MWSS Regulatory Office—resulted in:
• The exemption of MWCI and MWSI from the 12 percent profit margin limitation under Section 12 of the MWSS Charter;
• The passing on to unsuspecting consumers their corporate income taxes;
• The refusal to extend their services to anyone within their jurisdiction; and,
• The exemption, in effect, from the provisions expressed in Article XII, Section 11 of the 1987 Constitution, which limits foreign ownership of public utilities to at most 40 percent.
In their motion, the groups argued the petition is not a case “contesting the rates or fees of water or sewerage services” and as such does not fall within the exclusive original jurisdiction of the National Water Resources Board (NWRB).
“What we submitted last June 2006 was a petition to annul two MWSS resolutions which declared the two water concessionaires—Manila Water Company, Inc. (MWCI) and Maynilad Water Services, Inc. (MWSI)—as ‘mere agents’ and not as public utilities,” said FDC vice president Edwin Chavez.
“We are not contesting the rates granted by the two MWSS bodies to the water companies, but the legal validity of their declaration that these water concessionaires are not public utilities. We firmly believe they are public utilities,” stressed Chavez.
Last December 10, the High Court en banc junked the petition filed by FDC, Akbayan, APL and other petitioners—representatives Joel Villanueva, Eduardo Zialcita, and Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel; former representatives Mario Aguja and Renato Magtubo; and, individuals Ma. Theresa Diokno-Pascual, Mary Ann Manahan and Patrocinio Jude Esguerra III.
In a 13-page decision penned by Associate Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, the Supreme Court said the petitioners failed to first avail of the appropriate remedy by appealing the resolution with the NWRB, and to include two indispensable parties, MWCI and MWSI.
“The concessionaires are not indispensable parties to the petition,” argued the groups in their motion.
“While it may be true that the decision will have some effect on them, our petition is anchored on the ground that pertinent statutes and jurisprudence were contradicted by the assailed resolutions issued by the MWSS Board of Trustees and Regulatory Office,” said Chavez.
“We believe that our petition raises Constitutional issues and is imbued with public interest,” said Chavez.
The groups argued that while the Constitution itself does not provide a definition of public utilities per se, it nonetheless establishes a framework concerning public utilities under Section 11, Article XII, which prescribes certain requirements for their operation, e.g. equity requirements, takeover by the State under certain conditions, and the like.
They claimed that the assailed resolutions have the direct effect of removing the Concessionaires from the coverage of this constitutional provision, in detriment to the rights and interests of the Petitioners, and the general public. ###
Add comment January 28, 2008
