West Zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. said it received on Wednesday a copy of the Supreme Court (SC) decision denying a Writ of Kalikasan petition against the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and its concessionaires.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Maynilad through Metro Pacific Investments Corp., said the SC decision dated March 28, denied the petition filed by Water for All Refund Movement (WARM) against MWSS, Maynilad and Manila Water Co.
Maynilad said the SC en banc affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA), finding the issuance of the Writ of Kalikasan to be without basis as WARM failed to establish the requisites for its issuance.
“In its decision, the Supreme Court held that WARM failed to present evidence on the illegality of the implementation of the combined system; and causal link between the operation of the combined system and the alleged resulting environmental damage,” the company said in the disclosure.
A Writ of Kalikasan is a legal remedy that provides protection of a person’s constitutional right to a healthy environment.
WARM filed the petition at the CA for such type of writ against the MWSS and its two concessionaires back in 2013 citing “the danger to the environment involved in implementing a combined drainage system, which, when considering the variance in rainfall between peak and minimum conditions, all but guarantees the continued dumping of raw sewerage into the waters of Manila and its environs…”
The group said in its appeal “the collection of environmental and/or sanitation charges from consumers that does not actually go into actual remediation of the environment, violates the Polluter Pays Principle in Environmental Law.”
However, the SC in its decision said WARM “neither cited nor appended in their petition any scientific or other expert studies linking the combined sewerage system to the alleged damage to the environment…”
SC added that WARM did not present evidence of the existence and specific technical aspect of a combine drainage sewerage system and how such system is objectionable as well as the “causal link” between the operation of such system resulting to environmental damage, among others.
