SC asked to order Maynilad, Manila Water to refund their customers

By Rey E. Requejo

PARTY-LIST group Bayan Muna on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to partially reconsider its December 2021 decision which barred water consumers from demanding a refund for the income tax collected from them by Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Company, Inc.

This was despite an SC ruling that the two water firms are public utilities, and thus cannot recover their corporate income taxes as operating expenses from consumers.

In its partial motion for reconsideration, Bayan Muna, through its counsel Maria Cristina Yambot, also asked the Court to direct the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to account all corporate income taxes of Manila Water and Maynila it allowed to be included in applicable water rates from 2022 to 2012.

The petitioner said the water utilities should be compelled to refund the “illegally” passed on corporate income taxes to their respective water consumers.

While the High Court earlier ruled that water concessionaires Manila Water and Maynilad are public utilities, it denied the plea of Bayan Muna for the release of the refund, noting that the right to refund had already long prescribed due to the failure of any party to contest the water rates before the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) within the prescribed period of 30 days after the effectivity of such rates.

SWS:...

From A1 optimism score in the survey was +38, classified as very high. The March net personal optimism score, however, was six points lower than the “excellent” +44 in December 2022. Compared to December 2022, Net Personal Optimism fell from excellent to very high in Balance Luzon, down by 6 points from +43 to +37.

It fell from very high to high in the Visayas, down by 10 points from +37 to +27. It stayed excellent in Metro Manila, although down by 4 points from +49 to +45. It also stayed excellent in Mindanao, hardly moving from +48 to +47.

The March 2023 survey found 29 percent of adult Filipinos saying their quality of life was better than twelve months before, 25 percent saying it got worse, and 46 percent saying it was the same (“Unchanged”), compared to a year ago.

In all surveys from 2019 to 2023, Net Personal Optimism has been higher among Gainers than among Losers and Unchanged.

On the other hand, the scores among the Unchanged have been slightly higher than among the Losers except in May, July, and September 2020, when the gap widened.

The March 2023 survey found that 9.8 percent of Filipino families, or an estimated 2.7 million, experienced involuntary hunger – being hungry and not having anything to eat – at least once in the past three months.

Net Personal Optimism was at very high levels of +39 among adults who belong to families that did not experience hunger in the past three months, +33 among those who belong to families that experienced hunger in general, and +36 among those who belong to families who experienced Moderate Hunger, compared to the fair +12 those who belong to families who experienced Severe Hunger.

Oil...

From A1

On Tuesday, the country's oil firms raised gasoline prices by P1.10 per liter to reflect the movement of oil prices in the world market.

Diesel prices did not move, but the oil firms cut the price of kerosene by P0.35 per liter.

PTT Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Chevron Philippines, Seaoil Philippines, Petro Gazz, Cleanfuel, and Jetti Petroleum made separate announcements of their latest price movements.

USCG, and 60 to 70 from the JCG. Kaagapay Maritime Exercise 2023 is slated to run from June 1 to June 7 in the waters off Mariveles, Bataan.

The Japanese embassy Charges d’affaires (CDA) ad interim Matsuda Kenichi affirmed Japan’s support for the trilateral maritime exercise, saying “the shared history between Japan, the Philippines and the United States realizes a free and open international order in the Indo-Pacific region.”