From PrimeWater to Hiraya: Can a P6.7-Billion Promise Fix the Water Crisis?
Lucio Co has renamed PrimeWater to Hiraya Water Corp., pledging P6.7 billion for rehabilitation. But a new name cannot wash away years of dry taps and broken promises. The real question, as we dig deeper, is whether that money is enough to fix a system that left millions thirsty.
On June 10, 2026, PrimeWater Infrastructure Corp. became Hiraya Water Corp. The name, an ancient Tagalog word meaning hope and imagination, sounds good. But for the 76 local water districts and millions of consumers who endured weak pressure, poor quality, and mounting frustration, a rebranding feels like a Band-Aid on a broken pipe.
What Does P6.7 Billion Actually Buy?
Crystal Bridges Holding Corp., owned by Lucio Co, bought the company from the Villar family. They announced P6.7 billion for initial rehabilitation and expansion. But do the numbers add up?
Divide that by 76 districts, and you get roughly P88 million per district. That is not a lot. A single three-kilometer transmission line costs around P200 million, more than double that average. And that is just one pipe. It does not cover new water sources, treatment plants, aging distribution lines, reservoirs, pumps, or septage facilities.
Water infrastructure eats capital fast. Announcing a nationwide budget without district-level plans tells consumers little about whether their own taps will ever flow freely.
The Debt Problem: P24 Billion in Loans, Still No Water
Under Senate scrutiny, Senator Raffy Tulfo questioned how PrimeWater's loans ballooned from P270 million in 2014 to nearly P24 billion by 2024. How was that money spent? If serious service problems persisted despite that debt, what will another P6.7 billion do differently?
Tulfo's office found 61 of 70 surveyed water districts dissatisfied with PrimeWater. Several issued termination notices. Crystal Bridges did not buy one troubled concession. It bought a sprawling mess of operational problems, contractual disputes, and damaged trust.
The San Jose del Monte Lesson
San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, shows why promises deserve scrutiny. PrimeWater committed P6.8 billion in capital expenditures when its joint venture began in 2018. Only around P748 million was reportedly invested. Meanwhile, roughly 47,611 households, about 250,000 residents, suffered poor or unreliable service. The city eventually took PrimeWater to court and brought in an interim operator.
PrimeWater obtained a preliminary injunction from the Las Piñas Regional Trial Court to protect its position. But the case underscores a hard truth: contractual losses are measured in pesos, while the cost of unreliable water is spread across families, schools, hospitals, and businesses.
Can Lucio Co Deliver What PrimeWater Could Not?
Lucio Co did not create these problems. But when Crystal Bridges bought PrimeWater, it inherited the debt, the unfinished obligations, the lawsuits, and the skeptical customers. A new name does not reset those liabilities.
His group has water-sector experience through Pamana Water, but running a nationwide network of distressed concessions is different from running supermarkets. Water needs engineering, hydrology, treatment chemistry, and relentless capital spending. A poorly performing supermarket loses customers. A poorly performing water concession leaves an entire community without an alternative.
What Consumers Need to See
The P6.7-billion announcement should be judged by its architecture, not its size. Which districts get funding first? How much goes to source development, pipe replacement, treatment capacity, and storage? What are the targets for water pressure, supply hours, and quality? When will projects be completed? What happens if benchmarks are missed?
Without district-level allocations and measurable targets, P6.7 billion remains a financing announcement, not a rehabilitation plan. And with El Niño tightening water availability, Crystal Bridges does not have the luxury of treating this as an open-ended transformation.
Hiraya: Hope Is Not a Capital Expenditure
The ancient Tagalog word 'Hiraya' means imagination, the fruit of one's hopes, or to reach one's dreams. But aspiration has no engineering specifications, completion date, or service-level target. Lucio Co has bought PrimeWater's assets and opportunities, but also its debts, unfinished commitments, and angry customers.
Until Crystal Bridges shows where the P6.7 billion will go, how much more capital will follow, and when consumers will actually feel the difference, the rebranding remains precisely that: a new identity. Although PrimeWater can disappear from the corporate registry, it will take considerably more than P6.7 billion and a new name to erase it from public memory.