The advisory was terse.

“Dear valued customer,

In light of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration’s recent El Niño advisory and its threat to Metro Manila’s domestic water supply, Manila Water will be implementing operational adjustments that will affect your water supply.

“In this regard, water will only be available from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. every day until further notice. We are calibrating on how we can extend the availability of water for our customers.

“Manila Water is advising its customers to store enough water supply for their needs during the interruption period.

“We apologize for the inconvenience.”

We got this advisory on the day when our faucets ran dry more than a week ago. The village guards informed every household that a fire truck from Pasig City Hall was in the premises, and we should bring empty pails to get water. The firemen dispensing the supply advised us that the water was not safe to drink, and this we could tell by its smelly, murky quality.

As a “valued customer,” I don’t feel valued at all. My family pays our water bills diligently. We trust that our government and the private sector would sound the alarm early enough so we could all prepare for a looming water shortage. The advisory blamed El Niño, and yet the phenomenon affected not all, but just some areas in Metro Manila. So no, I didn’t feel valued at all.

What I feel is duped. Thanks to the congressional hearings, we learned that Manila Water has been charging its customers since 2008 for a water- treatment plant in Cardona, Rizal, that has yet to be fully operationalized. For the past 10 years, we, the Manila Water customers, have been paying for a plant that was just a mere business plan. This is not the kind of transparency and fair treatment that I expect from an Ayala-owned company.

Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) Chief Regulator Patrick Lester Ty sided with the Manila Water regarding this mystical and, to my mind, downright anomalous arrangement. Based on news reports, Ty said that the inclusion of the Cardona plant in the said company’s business plan since 2008 was fair and aboveboard.

When a regulator is quick to come to the defense of its concessionaire, then consumers are doomed. Senator Ping Lacson, during Monday’s Senate hearing on the water crisis, asked the MWSS for the amount of fees collected by the Manila Water from the Cardona water-treatment plant since 2008. The MWSS said that the answer was back in their office, and that they would get back to the Senate with a more concrete figure. Were they not even expecting to be asked about this? It already came out in the House committee hearing. Incompetent is too mild a word to describe the MWSS.

The MWSS failed us. It failed us by not anticipating the problem and averting this crisis. They failed us by not being blunt with the concessionaires and demanding the highest standards of compliance, transparency and accountability in behalf of the public. They failed us when the agency recently said that President Duterte, the sole source of a more compassionate statement and directive, was not properly informed. Mr. Patrick Ty, as head of the agency, must go.

Manila Water, as one of your consumers, I am so upset with your behavior. You were intellectually dishonest for blaming El Niño for your ineptitude. You lied to us. You lied to us by blaming El Niño when it was your failure to operate the Cardona water-treatment plant that was the real cause. Because of that failure, you even depleted the precious water of La Mesa Dam, which was meant to be not just yours, but our reserve supply as consumers. You owe us big-time.

In this modern-day age, when we had to line up with pails to get water from a single fire truck stationed in our village in the evening, after a long day at work, then we are not the valued customers you think we are. When our workers have to make do with waterless mornings while rushing to work, day after day, then there must be hell to pay. When moms can’t even wash the dishes and have to spend more money on paper plates on top of all the other expenses, then no apology in the world can make up for that.

What hurts so much is that all this could have been prevented—or you could have eased us into a creeping reality but chose not to. To the triumvirate of epic failures—Manila Water, MWSS and the National Water Resources Board—how dare you keep silent like the dead of night until the zombies of our worst nightmares came alive! You waited until there was an abrupt cessation in water supply before speaking out or even acting as a team. Did you think we wouldn’t have noticed? Did you think such monumental failures in judgment would be easily forgiven? You failed us. Please resign.

Susan V. Ople heads the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, a nonprofit organization that deals with labor and migration issues. She also represents the OFW sector in the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking.