“Don’t Run Out of Water”: How Manila Water Is Turning Local Excellence into Global Ambition
Executive Exchange — Episode feature with Jocot De Dios, Chief Executive, Manila Water
In this episode of the Exec Exchange, Dr. Piers Clark speaks with Jocot De Dios, Chief Executive of Manila Water, about what it means to run a high-performing utility in a fast-growing, climate-exposed megacity — and how that experience can (and should) travel.
Jocot’s mandate from his chairman is disarmingly simple:
“Don’t run out of water.”
What sits behind that line, however, is a story of transformation, regional expansion, and a very deliberate push to make Manila Water a “truly global Filipino utility” — not by chasing deals, but by exporting what it does best.
From Law and Energy Policy to Water Operations
Unlike many water utility CEOs who come up through engineering or operations, Jocot’s route is unconventional – and highly relevant to today’s context.
His background includes:
- Commercial law practice
- Undersecretary (Deputy Minister) for Energy in the Philippine government – responsible for the national energy plan, downstream oil, and creating the natural gas office
- Chairman of the Philippine National Oil Company Exploration Corporation
- CEO roles in oil & gas exploration (Nido Petroleum, Australia/Philippines)
- Country CEO for General Electric (GE) Philippines managing multiple P&Ls and sectors
- Regional government affairs for GE across Asia-Pacific
- CEO of a major construction company in the Razon Group, one of the country’s largest conglomerates
Only after all of that did he take on Manila Water.
That mix of policy, heavy infrastructure, capital markets, and corporate transformation shows in how he frames the utility: not just as a concessionaire, but as an operator, partner, and platform that can sit comfortably alongside global players.
Manila Water Today: A PPP with Regional Reach
At its core, Manila Water is best known for its 27-year public–private partnership in the East Zone of Metro Manila:
- 7.6 million customers in the eastern part of Metro Manila and the province of Rizal
- Water supply and wastewater services in one of Asia’s densest, most complex urban environments
- Non-revenue water (NRW) at ~13.5–14% in the East Zone – a performance that stands out in emerging market contexts
But the footprint extends well beyond that:
Across the Philippines:
- South of Metro Manila (Laguna)
- North of Manila (Clark, Pampanga)
- Further south in Albay e Davao
- A portfolio of non-East Zone concessions and bulk arrangements
Internationally:
- Investments in two major utilities in Vietnam (Thu Duc and Dong Saigon Water)
- A minority stake in Eastwater in Thailand
- Operations in Indonesia
- Management and O&M contracts in Saudi Arabia (East and Northwest clusters)
This is not a theoretical aspiration to “go global” – the company is already operating across multiple jurisdictions, with more than enough complexity in time zones, regulatory systems, and customer bases.
The question Jocot is now asking is: how do we do this in a way that is disciplined, value-adding, and distinctly Filipino?
Typhoons, Dams, and Disaster Resilience: Living with Climate Reality
Any water utility in the Philippines operates under the shadow of extreme weather. Recent months saw two significant typhoons hitting the country in close succession.
For Manila Water, these events are a double-edged sword:
- On the one hand, they bring badly needed inflows into the dams that supply Metro Manila’s East Zone.
- On the other, they wreak damage on infrastructure, communities, and operations, particularly outside Metro Manila.
Manila Water plays on both fronts:
- Operational resilience and rapid response
- As part of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, Jocot and his team track weather systems, seismic activity, and other threats.
- Before a typhoon hits, they pre-position gensets, teams, and contingencies to maintain service continuity.
- During and after events, they deploy water tankers and support to affected areas — even beyond their own concession boundaries.
- Strategic role in flood and water management
Manila Water is now actively involved in a presidential advisory council looking at flooding and storm impacts. Here, the utility steps beyond its traditional role:- Proposing retention reservoirs downstream of dams to capture stormwater that would otherwise rush to Manila Bay
- Exploring how flood infrastructure can double up as future supply or storage assets, not just as drainage
- Drawing on international precedents (e.g., Singapore’s Marina Bay, Malaysian flood tunnels) while tailoring solutions to the Philippine context
The principle is simple but powerful:
If extreme weather is the new normal, don’t just defend against it. Harness it.
For other utilities in typhoon-, cyclone-, or monsoon-exposed regions, Manila Water’s stance is instructive: water companies belong at the table when national governments design integrated flood and water resource strategies, not just when pipes break.
Becoming a “Global Filipino Utility”: Focus First, Expand Second
Jocot is clear that global ambition without discipline is a fast way to lose money and focus.
He deliberately reframes the globalisation question:
“We’re not going to go anywhere the wind blows or the water flows. It has to be of value to our partner, to their customers — and to us.”
The strategy rests on three pillars:
- Be genuinely best-in-class at home
- Maintain world-class performance on core metrics like NRW, continuity of supply, and wastewater service in Metro Manila.
- Act as a pure-play operator – an organisation whose core competence is running systems, not just building them.
- Export what is distinctive and relevant
- Leverage Manila Water’s experience in:
- Turning around high-loss, under-served systems in emerging markets
- Operating under regulatory, political, and climate pressure
- Navigating complex PPP structures
- Focus on operational roles, concessions, and management contracts, not scattered minority investments with no operational influence.
- Leverage Manila Water’s experience in:
- Codify and protect innovation
- Encourage younger engineers and managers to develop new methods, procedures, and tools.
- File patent applications where appropriate – not as an IP empire-building exercise, but to prove that Manila Water can create exportable methods and protocols, not just warm bodies.
Globalisation here is not a brand exercise; it’s a by-product of being very good at specific things that other markets actually need.
Transformation and Tempo: Move Faster
Jocot took over Manila Water to lead a transformation, not just to keep the seat warm. That means culture change, new systems, and a reshaping of how the organisation sees itself.
Looking back over his first four years, he’s blunt about what he’d do differently:
“I should have done things much earlier. Don’t waste time. Move on with change very quickly.”
He recognises that with any leadership transition there’s a temptation to proceed via too many steps, too much calibration. In hindsight, he would have:
- Compressed the change process – fewer intermediate steps, faster execution
- Shaken off the “seven- to eight-year cycle” that has characterised his previous career moves and treated the first years at Manila Water as a sprint, not a warm-up
For other utility leaders managing post-crisis turnaround, PPP resets, or strategic pivots, the message is familiar but rarely followed: if you know what needs changing, do it sooner.
The Simplest Mandate: Don’t Run Out of Water
For all the complexity – PPP structures, international deals, disaster resilience, innovation portfolios – Jocot finishes on the most fundamental piece of guidance he’s received:
“Don’t run out of water.”
It’s deceptively simple. Yet in a fast-growing, climate-exposed, politically charged environment like Metro Manila, delivering on that mandate requires:
- Long-term resource planning
- Real-time operational resilience
- Constructive engagement with national government
- A culture that can absorb new ideas while executing on the basics every day
Manila Water’s journey under Jocot’s leadership is far from finished. But for utilities in Asia, Africa, Latin America and beyond that are wrestling with similar combinations of growth, risk and ambition, its approach offers a clear blueprint:
- Get very good at what matters most in your home market.
- Treat climate shocks as opportunities to redesign the system, not just survive it.
- Only expand where you can bring distinct, proven value.
- And above all: don’t run out of water.
To hear the full conversation with Jocot De Dios on Manila Water’s evolution and global ambitions, listen to this episode of the Exec Exchange.