The Cagayan de Oro Bulk Water Inc. (COBI) is aghast at the prospect of being declared persona non grata by the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) which owes it large amounts of money for services already delivered but remains unpaid at present.
The threat represents an escalation to the ongoing dispute that has compelled COBI to cut off water supply to a parched city following years of effort for the contending entities to come to an agreement.
“We are surprised to learn that we are now being asked to explain why we should not be declared persona non grata,” COBI said in a statement provided Context.ph.
According to COBI, the enterprise exhausted all means to compel the water district to acknowledge its contractual obligations and pay up, to know avail.”The decision to cut-off supply of water to COWD is something that we do not take lightly. This is why we exhausted all possible means to resolve the issue, including requesting mediation by (Local Water Utilities Administration) LWUA. Our representatives have been flying in and out of Cagayan de Oro for the past year trying to settle the issue,” the service provider said.
COBI said COWD was expected to come and honor the 30 April 2024 meeting set two full weeks earlier when the parties were to have resolved their contending positions and come to an amicable settlement.
“We met with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of COWD, where we mentioned that we do not even require COWD to immediately pay the full amount of our claims, but rather to settle the undisputed portion of their debt by way of installments, and the parties can then proceed to amicably discuss the disputed portion of our claim.
“However, we were very surprised to learn that COWD’s Board of Directors could not even form a quorum on the day of the meeting, which brings into question the seriousness of COWD to amicably resolve the matter,” COBI said.
It regrets the fact that the enterprise is threatened with an unwelcome status in Cagayan de Oro when “(a) we are the ones who are exerting all efforts to resolve the dispute amicably, and it is COWD which impeded discussions thru lack of representation, and (b) this decision to cut-off supply to COWD was made together with Rio Verde, and (c) we invested heavily and is legally operating in CDO.”
Rio Verde delivers water services to CDO residents as CODI subcontractor.
CODI said while it agrees to the view of unimpeded delivery of water services to CDO residents, such comes at a cost to investors who make the enterprise possible at all.
“(T)his comes with a cost as treating and supplying water requires massive investments, which we did for the sake of the Cagayanons. This investment was made on the premise that the counterparty, COWD, will make true on its promise to comply with its contractual obligations, which sadly they did not. Notwithstanding COWD’s default in its agreement, we patiently waited for years to come to an amicably resolution of the matter. Sadly, our plight was ignored by COWD for reasons unknown to us,” COBI said.
