Ayala firm to keep Clark water rates ‘competitive’

CLARK FREEPORT—Manila Water Co. Inc. intends to maintain competitive rates for its services in this economic zone.

The firm took over recently the management and operation of Clark Water Corp. (CWC), which it bought at an undisclosed amount from Veolia Water Philippines Inc.

The CWC is set to reevaluate with Clark Development Corp. (CDC) the company’s 25-year lease contract that allows the reassessment and adjustment of the rates every five years.

Virgilio Rivera, who replaced Eriberto Calubaquib as president and chief executive officer of CWC on November 29, said water rates here have remained unchanged since 2006.

“We are 100 percent behind the CDC in its vision to make Clark one of the strategic assets of the Philippine government. And for CDC to attract locators, you need to have reliable utilities, including water, reasonably priced, and we are ready to invest our resources. I think we have very strong balance sheet to support these ambitious plans of the CDC,” he said.

“We’d like to find a way to keep the rates reasonable, and at the same time, we are also able to offset the increase in operating expenses. What we are doing now is we want to make sure that whatever rates that will be maintained in Clark will remain competitive with other economic zones in the country.”

Rivera said the CWC plans to set aside at least P250-million capital investment next year.

He said he had learned from the CDC that there would be new locators here next year, and more than 20 companies had been invited to locate in this free port.

“We want to make sure that water is available for these new locators. We don’t want to react. We want to make sure that the infrastructure is prepared before the demand comes,” Rivera said.

CDC president Felipe Antonio Remollo said he hoped that the water rates would go down as he described the takeover by Manila Water of CWC as a welcome development.

“The track record of Manila Water’s parent company, the Ayala Group of Companies, speaks for itself. We know they’re here to stay, and it has already been proven that they are not just fly-by-night company. With the reputation of the Ayala companies, I myself feel safe having them around here,” he said.

Remollo said CDC would soon review its concession agreement with the CWC to improve its rates and make it more competitive.

“Because part of the attraction of Clark from the point of view of locators and investors is reasonable electricity and water rates, aside from rentals and availability of workforce,” he said.

The CWC was established in 2000 as subsidiary of Veolia Water Philippines Inc. (known then as Vivendi Water) for the provision of drinking water and waste water services in this former US military base. Its 25-year contract with CDC covers production and distribution of drinking water, management of the sewage network and waste water treatment.

The company has 21 pumping stations, five reservoirs with 12 million-liter capacity, and a water treatment facility that treats 16 million liters of waste water daily that it discharges to the Dolores Creek in Mabalacat, Pampanga. Its 1,800 customers use an average of 24 million liters of water per day.—Jun Malig