New MWSS admin ends 15-year retirement claims issue in 8 months

In just eight months, the new management of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), led by administrator Gerry Esquivel and Chairman Dondi Alikpala, has settled a 15-year retirement claims issue among former employees.


Last September, MWSS paid P302 million to some 1,000 retirees to complete payment of P648 million in added benefits that are due them.


The water agency has already paid P346 million to 1,131 retirees who invoked the provisions of RA 1616 which the Supreme Court recognized in 2008 after an eight-year legal battle between the claimants and the Commission on Audit.


This is on top of the pension benefits the retirees received in 1997 under the Early Retirement and Incentive Package (ERIP).


“I’m glad we’ve settled pension obligations to our retirees. This is an initiative that we’ve been working on, consistent with President Benigno Aquino’s call to tread the straight and narrow path for the sake of his boss, the Filipino people,” Esquivel said.


“We thank MWSS for giving us these retirement benefits which we’ve been waiting for 15 years,” an unidentified retiree said.


Since the privatization of its distribution services in 1997, MWSS has also paid P3.67 billion in retirement benefits to more than 2,000 employees in accordance with its ERIP.


The settlement of retiree benefits is just one of the many issues that MWSS targets to dispose. In collaboration with concessionaires Maynilad and Manila Water, MWSS has embarked on a Water Security Legacy Project to identify lasting solutions for unresolved concerns that have tried the patience of the water agency in the past, including water infrastructure development and resource management and protection, sewerage and sanitation, water efficiency, business continuity, business plan review and partnership building. Laila Ine M. Opiña, Media Relations Officer Asst. Agatep Associates, Inc.