Malaybalay water district ends joint venture with PrimeWater
MindaNews / 20 January — The Malaybalay City Water District (MCWD) has officially issued a notice to pre-terminate its 25-year Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) with PrimeWater Infrastructure Corporation, the utility said in a public advisory Monday.
MWCD said the decision to end the agreement “comes after a thorough evaluation of PrimeWater’s performance over the last five years.”
It cited that the “repeated instances of non-compliance and material breaches of the agreement have remained unremedied despite multiple formal notices and opportunities for corrective action.”
It added the decision to terminate came after a 90-day period intended for negotiation during which PrimeWater failed to show “genuine cooperation,” leading to a declaration of “bad faith.”
“MCWD has given PrimeWater 45 days to respond and coordinate the terms of the pre-termination and the turnover of the water system,” according to the advisory.
In an interview with a local radio station on Tuesday, MCWD general manager Nolito Binahon said they decided to pre-terminate the agreement as there are areas that still experience problems in supply, some projects have remained unfinished or pending, and majority of the investments [committed by PrimeWater] have not been realized.
MCWD assured water supply operations will continue despite this development.
From 2006 until 2025, Villar Group was listed as the owner of PrimeWater. From 2025 to present, the owner has been identified as Crystal Bridges Holding Corporation, which is part of the Lucio Co Group.
As early as April 2025, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had said he will order an investigation into PrimeWater Infrastructure Corp., due to complaints of poor services and high cost.
In its website, PrimeWater says its vision is “to be one of the country’s premier water utility companies” by providing “potable, reliable, and sustainable water to Filipino communities.”
Primewater signed the JVA with MCWD in 2020. The agreement said PrimeWater shall, in the first five years of the 25-year deal, provide ₱100 million per year or ₱500 million in total for improvements.
Malaybalay City Mayor Jay Warren Pabillaran, in a Facebook video post on May 9 last year, said the two parties to the agreement didn’t seek the consent of the City Council nor conducted a public hearing.
Pabillaran, who was the vice mayor at the time the agreement was negotiated and signed, said he was told “it was no longer necessary” despite an order from the Local Water Utilities Administration to hold a public hearing.
He added that some members of the city council filed a petition before the court to cancel the JVA, but it was dismissed not for lack of merit but on technical grounds.
The first water system in Malaybalay was designed to service just three areas — Poblacion, and Barangays Impalambong and Casisang.
Later, however, water service connections expanded to Barangays San Jose, Laguitas, Aglayan, Cabangahan, and Linabo, leading to shortages in supply, as these areas were not included in the original plan.
Several areas in Malaybalay have continued to experience water supply interruptions even after the entry of PrimeWater, some lasting as long as eight hours or more. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews)
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