The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-Panay picketed at the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) office in Iloilo City on October 20 to denounce the scheduled water rate increase. The Metro Pacific Iloilo Water (MPIW) will raise its rates first in November and again in March 2026.

MPIW currently charges consumers ₱20 per cubic meter. The rate will rise by 26% to ₱25.2 per cubic meter in November and will reach ₱28.67 per cubic meter in March. The total increase over five months will amount to 43%.

The company claims that it has not increased its rates since 2019. The increase is reportedly a response to rising company costs for wages, electricity, fuel, and chemicals. It deceptively declareds that the additional charge will not be used for capital expenditures or for developing and expanding its services.

“These reasons are unacceptable,” Bayan-Panay declared. The group said the rate hike is unjust, burdensome, and anti-people. The group said costs for wages, fuel, and electricity should be the company’s basic responsibility and not passed on to consumers.

The group added that MPIW has continued operations and profits for six years without raising its rates. “This means it is not running a loss,” the group said.

“At a time when the people are already struggling with high prices and low wages, the additional burden…will weigh heavily on ordinary households,” Bayan-Panay stated. Worse still, the group said, the company persists in providing poor quality water service, low water pressure or irregular supply, dirty water, and other problems.

“Clearly, there has been no real improvement in service delivery despite the public–private partnership,” the group said. MPIW is a joint venture of MIWD and Metro Pacific Water, a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation. The 25-year contract between the local government and the private company began in 2018.

Amid the deteriorating service caused by privatization, Bayan-Panay emphasized its position that access to water is a basic right and not a commodity to be exploited for profit. “The government must ensure that water remains affordable, clean, and accessible to all,” the group stated.

The group called for the cancellation of the Joint Venture Agreement between MIWD and Metro Pacific, stressing that its service has already been proven poor and useless. The group also urged the Iloilo City Council to investigate the company’s unjust rate increase and rotten water service.