MWSS and the perks of an MWSS driver

A decade ago, water services in Metro Manila had been compared to the services enjoyed by peoples from Sahara-Africa. Those who enjoy having water pumped right to their houses had to purify them just to be able to drink that yellowish colored liquid. 

The reason why every single home in the metropolis right now spends close to 300 pesos per month for drinking water reminds you of the decades past water services where drinking water is fit only for mosquitoes and the color of the water was as brackish as those in the fishponds.

Now, everyone living in decent homes in the metropolis enjoy safe, drinking, potable water, thanks to the services of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System or MWSS. Once a graft-ridden agency, MWSS tries to reform itself. 

Lately however, officials of MWSS were subjected to extreme humiliation from workers and employees of MWSS. 

In a June 2012 letter addressed to Executive secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr, the officials of MWSS requested that the previous perks of the past dispensation be given to them once more. Those perks which President Aquino criticized in his State of the Nation address are now being given to board members of the MWSS.

Shortly after being given those perks, officials of the agency then withdrew the allowances and "perks" of MWSS employees. Before, a driver working at the MWSS receives close to 90,000 per month worth of salaries and emoluments. Now, that driver receives almost 40,000.

Wow. Talk about "low" salaries, this one makes it to the Guinness. And the employees are resisting the MWSS board.

President Aquino should institute drastic action against this agency. This agency should be put under the direct control of the Executive. Reforms should be instituted like streamlining the bureaucracy and creating a standardized salary and emoluments scheme. 

I am all after the welfare of the workers but as members of a government owned and controlled corporation, having such high salaries and perks during these difficult times is disturbing.