The Sibonga municipal hall had no running water after its supply was cut off by the town’s water supply cooperative due unpaid bills since 1995.
Arceli Guaves, chairman of the board of the town’s local water supplier, Sibonga Waterworks and Sanitation Service Cooperative (Siwasco), confirmed that they had indeed cut off the water supply of the town’s municipal hall last February 11.
Guaves said this happened after local government unit failed to pay its bill for January of this year, on top of its other unpaid bills from the previous years.
“Kani lang January, among gipangayo na mubayad sila, I-update lang nila ilang current bill (We are just asking them that they pay first the January. Then they can just update the payment of their current bill), ” she said.
“Kadtong ilang daan nga bill sukad pagsugod until pag December last year, di lang usa namo paninglon (We will not yet collect the bill that they had not paid until December of last year),” she said
Guaves said that the issue of non-payment of water bills by the local government had been the subject of a long-drawn court battle which started around 1999.
She said that an order from the Court of Appeals, which had become final and executory, finally came out last year that ordered the Sibonga government to pay their water bills starting from November 1995, when Siwasco started operating, until December 2016.
With this development, Guaves said that they had agreed to defer the collection of the payment for the town’s previous water bill, roughly estimated at around P40,000 per month, but insisted that they must settle their water bill on time starting January of this year.
For failing to settle their current water bill, Guaves said they had no choice but to eventually cut off the municipal hall’s water supply.
Mayor Caroline Bacaltos of Sibonga could not be reached for comment as of press time while town administrator Gilmore Saniel said that he cannot comment on the issue as it is still pending in court.