There is this old saw about Supreme Court (SC) decisions and resolution. When the SC commits an error, it becomes part of the law of the land. This adage must be staying rent-free in the minds of all the lawyers in Bulacan who were stumped by a recent High Court resolution that stressed the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) “is not required to share its proceeds with the provincial government of Bulacan” for the use of the water impounded at Angat Dam.
The resolution, which stumped Bulacan Gov. Daniel Fernando and the Bulacan mayors, overturned the decisions of inferior courts and the Court of Appeals (CA), which all ruled that the MWSS has to pay for the use of the water at the dam, which is sourced from Angat River, and supplies 90% of all the potable water in Metro Manila that Maynilad and Manila Water distribute in the concessions.
Angat Dam is a multiple use dam that functions as a hydroelectric facility for the National Power Corp. (Napocor), which is now the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), 40% owned by the State Grid Corp. of China (SCGC), and 60% shared equally by Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp. of tycoon Henry Sy Jr.’s family and Calaca High Power Corp. of businessman Robert Coyiuto. NGCP is a privately-owned corporation created on January 15, 2009, through Republic Act No. 9511, despite opposition by many citizens since SCGC can effectively control the corporation by simply cutting a deal with either the Sys or Coyuito to secure 60% of of NGCP.
The dam, the biggest in a raft of dams in Bulacan, also supplies irrigation water to 28,000 hectares in Bulacan and Pampanga through the National Irrigation Administration (NIA.) It took six years (1961-1967) and P315-million to build the dam, which is 131 meters high with water level at 210 meters, with a base of 550 meters (1,800 ft) and is 568 meters long (1,864 ft.) Angat Dam was a boon to the people of Bulacan as both a power generating facility and as a supplier of potable water and irrigation water.
For several decades, the Bulacan provincial government thought that since the dam is actually a multi-purpose dam that generates electricity and distributes water, it must also share the revenues that Napocor earns for managing the dam. Moreover, since MWSS also profits from the water from nature and impounded at the Angat Dam (which is technically located in Norzagaray, Bulacan), then it must also have a share from its earnings. The Angat River is the principal source of water for the dam (unlike Wawa Dam in Montalban, Rizal that needs ample rainfall to fill) and without it, the dam would dry.
Reports wrongly stated that the National Power Commission (NPC) operates the Angat Dam but such a commission does not exist since the defunct Napocor had managed the dam since 1967. Napocor actually does the impounding of the water to generate electricity while MWSS brings the water to La Mesa Dam and eventually to millions of households in the National Capital Region (NCR.) To make its claim to part of the earnings of MWSS, the provincial government went to court, winning from the Regional Trial Court (RTC) to the CA. The winning streak ended in August 2024, when the SC, through a mere resolution made short shrift of Bulacan’s arguments.
Associate Justice Henri Jean Paul B. Inting, one of the latest additions to the High Court penned the resolution in GR No. 185184 (MWSS v. Provincial Government of Bulacan), and the en banc denied the motion for reconsideration filed by the Bulacan provincial government, arguing it is not entitled to a single red penny of the MWSS revenue. Inting cited the following conditions for a local government unit (LGU) to be entitled to a share in the use of national wealth: (1) The national wealth forms part of a natural resource; (2) it is within the LGU’s territory, and; (3) the proceeds must come from the use of such national wealth. Weirdly, the SC held that since only the Napocor (now NGCP) is engaged in extracting water, then it must pay the share of the Bulacan provincial government. MWSS has no obligation to share anything with Bulacan and is not under any moral compulsion to the charitable while it profits by way of reprehensible unjust enrichment.
The first condition, goes the Inting ponencia, is not met because the water impounded in Angat Dam is no longer considered a natural resource since it has been extracted from a natural source, the Angat River, by the “National Power Commission (NPC) (sic.) Once water is removed from its natural source, it ceases to be part of the natural resources of the country and becomes artificial and man-made in character.” No amount of boilerplate lexicon and legalese can mysteriously make water artificial and man-made, contrary to the Inting theory. They are talking in GR 185184 of water, which scientifically can be separated into hydrogen and oxygen, but the water from the Angat River can hardly be distinguished as “man-made in character.” Water comes from nature, not the Napocor or MWSS. We do not know from whence the Inting theory is sourced but certainly, it is not from Catholic theology which teaches that wine and the host at the Eucharist bread are transubstantiated and become the blood and body of Christ. The SC should reread its resolution and subject it thorough scrutiny and find out if it can pass judicial muster.
