Since Villars’ PrimeWater took over, Bulacan residents suffering for years

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BULACAN, Philippines – One breezy February afternoon in San Jose Del Monte City, the Marcos slate Alyansa campaigned in the vote-rich province, and Camille Villar, heiress to the business and political empire, promised all the basic needs — housing, jobs, etc. — except for one: water.

It was the elephant in the room that day because Camille Villar’s brother owns PrimeWater, the private water utility firm that, since taking over water services in the city, has caused so much suffering to the very people she was asking votes from.

On the sidelines of that sortie, Rappler asked attendees what their pressing issues were and the answer was a resounding consensus — bad water service despite high costs. “PrimeWater sa tubig, palaging walang tubig, mahal ang singil, ayun lang pero laging walang tubig (PrimeWater, water, we always have no water, but they charge us so much, but there’s always no water),” city resident Redelyn Rodrigo told Rappler then, saying that their household of three sometimes gets charged P1,000.

PrimeWater entered into a joint venture with the local water district of San Jose Del Monte in 2018, under Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency when Camille’s brother Mark was the public works secretary. PrimeWater Infrastructure Corp. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Prime Asset Ventures Inc. Prime Asset is owned by their other brother, Manuel Paolo A. Villar. They are the children of the Philippines’ richest man, former senator Manny Villar. The matriarch Cynthia is a graduating senator, and Mark is only halfway his first term as senator.

It’s a worrying entanglement of big business and government, and under this Villar dominance, PrimeWater signed around a hundred joint venture agreements with water districts nationwide, one of them being San Jose Del Monte. Other Bulacan ventures are Marilao, Malolos, Meycauayan, San Ildefonso, and San Rafael.

DOMINANCE. Camille Villar’s senatorial campaign posters are posted in front of her family-owned Camella subdivision in San Jose Del Monte city in Bulacan. Photo by Franz Lopez/Rappler

Backwards since PrimeWater

“Simula nang magtayo ng joint venture, simula na ‘nun, iipon na, lahat na may container (since the joint venture began, it started, we all started having to store water, we all got containers),” Even Calajate, a 76-year-old engineer who served as chairman of the board of their local water district for many years, told Rappler when we visited on April 9.

The suffering is best described by the household managers, as they’re the ones who have to make sure their water is adequately stocked, as other members go to work or to school. Lydia Hilario is 88 years old, and has lived in San Jose Del Monte City all her life, but she’s never suffered so much until three years ago, she said.

Hilario can barely stand on her own, is hard of hearing and hard of sight, but she gets up at 3 in the morning to start storing water because she knows that when the sun rises, water stops flowing out of their faucet. She knows it won’t be until the afternoon when water starts flowing again. Sometimes, they have no water for two full days.

It’s not a good way to live. “Hirap talaga mag-ipon. Minsan inaantok ako, minsan nabunggo-bunggo na ang ulo ko diyan sa kaka-kapkap. Hirap dahil may sakit ako, may insomnia ako, hindi ako makatulog. Sa oras ng tulog ko ganun lang, pagdating ng oras ay iniisip ko ang tubig,” Hilario told Rappler.

(It’s hard to collect water to store. Sometimes I’m still sleepy and I bump my head in the dark. It’s difficult because I have an ailment, I have insomnia, it’s hard for me to sleep. But when it’s time to sleep, all I can think of is water.)

The city has a rolling topography and the higher you are, the more difficult it gets to obtain water. Hilario’s last bill was P900, unreasonable she said, for the worst service. Calajate said the high bill could also be caused by leaving their faucets open, and air pressure would keep the meter running.

“Hindi naman kasi nila alam kung ano oras darating. Kaya nagbabantay sila. Pag narinig nilang may tumunog. Ayun,” said Calajate. (It’s because they don’t know when the water will come, so that’s their way of looking out for it. When they hear something flowing, that’s it.)

Every time water rations are posted on Facebook, angry residents swarm the comment section to complain of the band-aid solution. PrimeWater has restricted their comment section. PrimeWater has also set up static water tanks in different areas in the city that’s literally called “Tawid-Uhaw” or find the easiest way to quench thirst.

Irene Del Rosario, a city councilor for years and running for vice mayor in the coming elections, said they first had those tanks in the 90s, and back then it was free. Now they’re paying for it through PrimeWater’s bills. “We’re not moving forward, we’re moving backward,” said Del Rosario and added that some residents she’s visited are starting to cut their subscription, as they would rather find their own way to get water.

Even residents in Villar-owned subdivisions that Rappler talked to are not spared from water woes.

BAD SERVICE. Lydia Hilario’s dishes left in the sink waiting for water supply to resume in her home in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan. Photo by Franz Lopez/Rappler

Mismanagement?

Del Rosario and Calajate believe that the private joint venture in 2018 was so suspect because their local water district was performing so well. Indeed, from 2015 to 2016, their local district posted a record-high net income of P187 million both years, and also in both years, they were in the top 5 water districts with the highest net income. In 2017, they still posted a high net income of P126.4 million, according to their audited financial statements.

But come yearend 2018 when PrimeWater came in, their net income dropped to P49.2 million, and by 2019 they had reached a low P2.2 million. In 2020, they even went negative P5 million. By 2022, they had recovered a little bit at P3.9 million.

RED FLAG. A screenshot from the 2022 audit report of San Jose Del Monte water district, noting the drop of net income since they entered into a joint venture with Prime Water.

This was flagged by state auditors in 2022, noting that there should have been protection for the local water district to have more shares in revenue. San Jose Del Monte’s local water board told auditors then that they “cannot request for an increase in joint venture share because this additional cost on the part of its joint venture partner will prompt an increase in water rate which will be additional burden on the part of the concessionaires.”

“The way that [they] put it is like saying that it is but normal for PrimeWater to earn P180 million annually while it is acceptable for the government as its partner to earn only P1 million to P4 million or even occasional losses of P5 million per annum,” said auditors.

The Commission on Audit (COA) said in 2023 the water district implemented the recommendation to get more revenue share. In 2023, the water district posted a higher P14.8 million net income.

In contrast, PrimeWater had been steadily increasing its net profit and even breached a billion pesos in 2022, according to the company’s financial statements. From only P196 million net profit in 2017 they doubled that to P425 million in 2019. By 2023 it posted a net profit of P1.18 billion.

Del Rosario used her position in the council to get the city government to perform some sort of an oversight function “pero wala akong nakuhang suporta (but I did not get any support).”

While water districts are strictly not under the local government, as they are a a Government-Owned and Controlled Corporation (GOCC) with special charters, appointments of members of the board are finalized by mayors or governors.

“The local government is not powerless. We have the power to request for the investigation. Go to LWUA [Local Water Utilities Administration], ask them to investigate on the ongoing problem in the water services. The sanggunian (council) has the power to seek for the removal of the board of directors kung sila ay hindi gumaganap dun sa tungkulin nila (if they are not performing their duties),” said Del Rosario.

Rappler reached out to San Jose Del Monte Representative Rida Robes who is running for mayor to replace her husband Arthur. We also reached out to Bulacan Governor Daniel Fernando. We will update this story once they respond to our queries.

Calajate said that PrimeWater is mismanaging his city’s water, citing lack of competent manpower. In November 2024, amid widespread water interruption in Bulacan, PrimeWater cited power issues. Calajate asked why there would be no generator for a province that has 3.7 million people. San Jose Del Monte on its own has a population of 651,000.

The San Jose Del Monte water district has not posted an accomplishment report since 2017, or the year before the joint venture with PrimeWater. In 2023, it said that the joint venture had already spent P800 million for interconnection projects.

Calajate said priority should be given to building treatment plants, or the source of water ready to be distributed to the public. It basically makes the water safe before it goes out of someone’s faucet.

“Mismanagement talaga (This is really mismanagement),” said Calajate.

Rappler asked the camp of Camille Villar for a statement or an interview for this story, but we were referred to PrimeWater. The company has not returned letters that we sent in all its registered email addresses.

Why isn’t this a national issue?

It seems like going up against the richest man in the country, with family members all entrenched in government, is an uphill battle.

Calajate led a civil society group to get an injunction to block the 2018 joint venture, but a local court in Bulacan dismissed their bid on a technicality, citing jurisdiction because, according to Calajate, the judge believed it was an infrastructure issue that only the Supreme Court could answer.

Calajate said their group can no longer fund a Supreme Court case.

“Puro gastos namin, sarili namin gastos eh. Bawat move namin, eh, ang dami namin napuntahan, sarili naming gastos. Kaya ‘yun ang isang naging problema namin,” said Calajate.

(We had to pool our own money. Every move we made, every place we went to, we had to fund it ourselves. So that was one of our problems.)

A union all the way in Bacolod in Visayas is also trying to fight the Villars’ PrimeWater in the legal arena, but they just recently lost their case in the Ombudsman against their water district.

TAWID-UHAW. Weak water supply comes out of a Tawid-Uhaw PrimeWater station in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan. Photo by Franz Lopez/Rappler

Del Rosario was even once sued for inciting to sedition for rallying San Joseños to scrutinize the joint venture. She’d also spent a couple of nights in jail after she was arrested on a cyber libel charge for statements made against the Robes couple. The complainants weren’t the Robeses.

Arthur Robes was mayor in 2018 during the joint venture; now he’s running for House representative in a switch with his wife.

“Matagal nang nasa isip ko kasi hindi lang naman water district ng San Jose Del Monte ang nalipat sa PrimeWater…aware din naman tayo na ‘yung mga bayan na ‘yun nakakaranas ng hindi magandang serbisyo, nagtataka lang ako bakit walang senador na nagsasalita tungkol dito?” Del Rosario said.

(This has been in my mind for a while — San Jose Del Monte is not the only water district to be transferred to PrimeWater, and we are aware that those towns also experience bad service, I’m just wondering why no senator is talking about this?)

“This is a national issue, sana sa mga senador na kumakandidato sa Pilipinas, sana po makita ‘nyo naman ‘yung pangangailangan ng tubig na maiayos (for those running to be senators in the Philippines, I hope you see the need for better water),” said Del Rosario.

San Jose Del Monte has more than 600,000 votes up for grabs. Bulacan as a whole is the second most vote-rich province in the entire country. Calajate said he’ll be campaigning against Camille Villar, tired of the dynasty that has plagued his city.

“Kaya ‘yan mga interesado na pumasok sa pulitika ay gusto siguro, sa tingin ko, i-maintain nila ‘yung pagiging billionaire nila dahil madaling pagkakitaan ang water district (They are interested in politics because they want, I believe, to maintain their being billionaires because it’s easy to profit from water districts),” said Calajate.

Hilario’s call to all candidates is simple: bring their water back. “Sana naman sikapin nilang bumalik na sa normal tulad nang dati, kahit sino. Hindi ko na kaya, hirap na hirap talaga ako,” said Hilario.

(Whoever it is, I hope they persevere to get our water supply back to normal like before. I can’t take it anymore, I’ve been suffering too much.) – with reports from Bonz Magsambol/Rappler.com