Panglao agrees to bid water supplier

The tourists’ haven of Panglao would finally get the potable water, as elusively pursued during the past decade due to political intramurals among its local officials.

This breakthrough came last Friday after the provincial leadership intervened to “rescue” the never ending debates on which waterworks utilities would serve the water requirements in the various beach resorts and the residences of this coastal municipality.


Gov. Erico Aumentado and Rep. Edgar Chatto took time to preside over a public consultation/hearing to resolve the deadlock on the water issue which dates back to the previous administration of then Panglao Mayor Doloreich Dumaluan.

The urgency to solve the water issue came as the construction of the proposed Panglao Bohol International Airport is slated to commence first quarter of next year.

The five-hour public consultation at the Panglao Island Community Center was attended by some 100 stakeholders including resort owners who expressed dismay on the delayed resolution of the water controversy.

In their efforts to prove attendees that they are also in search for the entry of a waterworks utilities, Panglao Mayor Benedicto Alcala and Vice Mayor Pedro Fuertes made an unprecedented move to convene a special session of the Sangguniang Bayan in the presence of the stakeholders who were eager to know the final decision to be reached by the warring political factions.

The public consultation paved the way to the holding of the special session where the town lawmakers were united, for the first time, to approve an open competitive bidding for whichever waterworks firms interested to serve Panglao especially with the forthcoming construction of an airport.

Provincial BM Ae Damalerio was appointed to moderate the public hearing.Aumentado praised Alcala, Fuertes and the councilors for showing true statesmanship “by putting the interest of Panglao and its people first over and above their personal interests.”Following the PowerPoint presentation of lawyer John Titus Vistal, provincial planning and development coordinator, that gave a choice between a competitive bidding or open access mode of implementing the waterworks system improvement, the choice of the stakeholders, the mayor and the SB gravitated towards competitive bidding.The town gets to operate the existing waterworks system and stands to gain from the economic enterprise. It will also revamp the existing pipe network, making use of a 14-inch diameter mainline, taking care that the it as well as lateral lines do not cross the runway of the Panglao Bohol International Airport, and expand the pipe network to all sitios. The winning bidder will source the water from mainland Bohol.In contrast, the open access mode will allow several entities at the same time to install pipelines from their respective water sources outside of Panglao going to the town as well a build their respective piping networks to serve their consumers. This augurs well for a healthy competition – making water services good but keeping the prices down. Alcala said the water problem – although long suffered by the residents – is relatively easy to solve. All he needed, more than the money to upgrade the existing pipelines, expand the water system to cover all barangays and sitios, and to buy the fresh water that has to be sourced from outside of the island, is “concerted efforts” from the SB. During his previous term, he had started looking for solutions to the perennial lack of fresh water in Panglao but, he lamented, his successor, Dr. Doloreich Dumaluan, did not pursue the plans, hence the problem has persisted until now – his first term as mayor again when given a fresh mandate in 2007 by the people..For his part, Fuertes said at least four companies have presented proposals already. The SB would like to tap the one most beneficial to the resort town to address once and for all the salty and insufficient water supply.The SB members also took turns expressing their intention to solve the water lack.The competitive bidding mode ultimately won.Aumentado and Chatto expressed elation that the water issue was finally resolved.Realizing that they had the same objective with the mayor after all – to provide the Panglaoanons including the tourists with potable, sanitary and safe drinking tap water instead of the salty one available from current sources – the SB passed as resolution in a special session within Friday’s public consultation to adopt the competitive bidding mode.The governor assigned Vistal to sit down with the municipal planning and development coordinator and the town’s recently created technical working group (TWG) for water to craft the terms of reference so that the notice of bidding can be published the soonest possible time.Friday’s public consultation in essence scrapped the SB’s plan to tap the Asia Mizu, Inc. a Cebu-based company that had expressed interest to bulk-supply fresh water. The SB even already passed a resolution authorizing Alcala to enter into a contract with the company for the bulk water deal.Alcala however balked, saying he is not keen on signing the contract because in the first place, he has not even seen it.

He questioned the resolution favoring Asia Mizu when there are other suppliers like the Bohol Water Utilities, Inc., Mactan Rock Industries, Inc. and the Maynilad Water, Inc. that have also expressed interest in providing bulk water supply.