Are restaurants required to offer free water to diners?

Rant over Mama Lou’s NAIA 3 refusal to serve water sparks online talks.

A diner’s complaint over the lack of free service water at Mama Lou’s in NAIA Terminal 3 has sparked a wider conversation about something many Filipinos consider one of the most basic parts of restaurant service: access to clean drinking water without having to buy a bottle.

Threads user Belle in Manila said she was about to dine at the restaurant when she was informed that the branch did not serve service water and instead offered bottled water for ₱75.

“Service water should be a basic provision for diners at any restaurant,” she wrote.

She said her group immediately canceled its orders and transferred to Mary Grace, where they were served two carafes of water upon being seated.

The post gained attention online and eventually drew a response from Mama Lou’s CEO David P. Sison.

“You’re right that service water is basic,” Sison wrote.

He acknowledged that the NAIA 3 branch had adopted a different policy from the restaurant chain’s other locations.

“We made a call at that one store that we thought protected guests, and we got it wrong,” he said.

Sison then announced that Mama Lou’s NAIA 3 would start providing free service water just like its other branches, with water poured upon seating without customers having to ask.

“Sorry we made you walk out to get something that simple,” he added.

But is free water required by law?

Despite how common service water is in Philippine restaurants, there is no blanket national law requiring every restaurant in the country to provide diners with free drinking water.

Bills seeking to establish such a nationwide requirement have been proposed in Congress over the years, but have not become national law.

Some local governments, however, have their own ordinances.

Quezon City, for instance, requires restaurants, fast-food outlets and canteens to provide free drinking water upon a customer’s request. The rule deliberately avoids requiring restaurants to automatically serve water to prevent wastage.

Other LGUs have adopted their own measures requiring food establishments to provide customers access to free, clean and potable water.

This means whether a restaurant is legally required to provide free water can depend on the rules of the city or municipality where it operates.

But the Mama Lou’s discussion also goes beyond what establishments are legally obligated to provide.

Belle, who said she has experience in the restaurant and hotel industry, argued that diners should have the option of choosing between free service water and paid bottled water.

She also questioned why safe drinking water that could be used in preparing beverages could not similarly be offered as service water.

For Mama Lou’s NAIA 3, the debate has already produced a concrete change.

Customers will now get free service water.

And the episode raises a deceptively simple question for the restaurant industry: even where the law does not require it, should anyone have to pay just to get a glass of drinking water?

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