2 board members to Daluz-led board: We’re still here
INCUMBENT Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) board members Earl Bonachita and Danilo Ortiz have told members of the board led by Jose Daluz III to stop interfering with their duties.
Bonachita and Ortiz have sent formal notices to Daluz, Miguelito Pato, Jodelyn May Seno, MCWD general manager Edgar Donoso and the MCWD Secretariat, stressing that they are still bona fide board members.
The two men said Daluz should stop denying them their rights to notices of meetings or attending board members, including being copy furnished documents relating to the board.
On Dec. 21, the Daluz-led board removed Bonachita, who represented the education sector, and Ortiz, who represented the civil sector, as members, a month after Daluz issued a show-cause order against the two due to their failure to attend meetings and for conducting unauthorized board meetings with other individuals.
Daluz then declared their board seats vacant.
However, Bonachita and Ortiz called their attempted removal “illegal” and without “statutory basis.”
They said they never vacated nor have they been removed from their position.
Notice
In a copy of the notice sent to SunStar Cebu on Monday, Feb. 26, Bonachita and Ortiz reminded Daluz, Pato and Seno that they have been removed from office since August 2023, with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama appointing retired military general Melquiades Feliciano, Aristotle Batuhan, and Nelson Yuvallos to replace them last Oct. 31.
Bonachita and Ortiz explained that they no longer recognized the Daluz-led board, as stipulated in their reply letter on Dec. 4, regarding the showcause order against them.
The two men said they did not want to participate in the Daluz-led board due its alleged questionable policies, particularly on the insistence of the desalinated water project that put the MCWD at risk of bankruptcy.
However, that did not mean they abdicated their duties as MCWD board members, they said.
Bonachita and Ortiz said there were attempts to bar their rights to notice of meetings, to attend such meetings, and to be fully informed of decisions at such meetings.
SunStar Cebu tried to reach out to Daluz for comment, but to no avail.
On the other hand, Donoso was also reminded to confer and seek the approval of the board led by Feliciano on future actions of the water districts.
Bonachita and Ortiz told Donoso to furnish copies of the agenda of the meeting, minutes, notices, board resolutions, and other related documents relative to the official MCWD business.
Bonachita and Ortiz assumed office in January 2023, succeeding Manolette Dinsay and Frank Malilong Jr., whose terms ended in December 2022.
Both Bonachita and Ortiz’s terms will end in December 2028.