Thinking Pinoy blogger exposed on his Facebook post about the connection of House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano to persons behind onerous water deals with Maynilad and Manila Water.
Thinking Pinoy blogger exposed on his Facebook post about the connection of House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano to persons behind onerous water deals with Maynilad and Manila Water.According to Thinking Pinoy, Speaker Alan Cayetano’s father, former Senator Rene Cayetano is one of the legal brains behind the government’s anomalous 1997 water concession deal with Maynilad Water Services, Inc. and Manila Water.
Thinking Pinoy added that Senator Cayetano served as Chief Presidential Legal Counsel to former President Fidel V. Ramos in the late 1990s.
Read The Full Statement of Thinking Pinoy:
MR. PRESIDENT, YOU CAN’T SUMMON SOME OF THE LAWYERS INVOLVED IN THE WATER ISSUE BECAUSE AT LEAST ONE HAS PASSED AWAY
I think you already know that but I might as well help educate the public.
President Rody Duterte on December 10th summoned officials of MWSS and the lawyers who crafted the 1997 water concession deals, threatening to suspend the writ of habeas corpus should they fail to comply.
President Duterte said,”Yung mga abugado noon kung ayaw nilang pumunta rito, I will drag them. Then if you will force my hand, I will throw my last card. Ayaw ninyo? O sige. I will suspend the habeas corpus at hilain kayo. Widespread economic sabotage.”
Unfortunately, some of the legal brains behind the government’s anomalous 1997 water concession deal with Maynilad Water Services, Inc. and Manila Water have already passed away.
Among these was former Senator Renato “Compañero” Cayetano, who served as Chief Presidential Legal Counsel to then-President Fidel V. Ramos in the late 1990s.
Senator Cayetano is House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano’s father.
The replacement came at a time when the government was finding ways on how to legally privatize MWSS.
In his 2000 paper “The Manila Water Concession: A Key Government Official’s Diary of the World’s Largest Water Privatization” sponsored by the World Bank, Mark Dumol wrote:
“At about this time (February 1996), Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Tony Carpio was replaced by Atty. Rene Cayetano and all of Carpio’s people disappeared.”
Several months later and after Maynilad and Manila Water won, MWSS forwarded the bid documents to the Committee on Privatization (COP) which, in turn, endorsed it to the Office of the President.
Dumol wrote, “While the COP was discussing the award of contract, the Court of Appeals issued a 20-day Restraining Order on the award. The following day, the Restraining Order was the headline in five newspapers.”
Dumol added, “Over the next few days, the headlines were about President Ramos and Atty. Cayetano, the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel. The President vowed to fight the Restraining Order, using all of the government’s resources.
“Cayetano slammed the courts for interfering with the prerogatives of the Executive Branch. Later, the President even called for a change in the Constitution so as to limit the powers of the judiciary,” Dumol wrote.
Yes, FVR with the aid of his top lawyer Cayetano even threatened to limit the powers of the Judiciary just for the government to be able to award the water concession contracts to Maynilad and Manila Water.
