The aim of this paper is to explore the processes and outcomes of neoliberalism in
relation to urban water supply in the city of Tagbilaran, the Philippines, in order to provide a nuanced
account of (an) actually existing hybrid neoliberal space. Using Bakker’s typology of market environmentalist
reforms in resource management as a guiding frame to link this case to a bigger
‘neoliberal’ conversation, I distinguish how reforms to resource governance at the national level,
coupled with changes in the ways in which resource management institutions and resource management
organisations function at the local level have acted to constitute local practices of neoliberal
governance. Local articulations of (national and supranational) neoliberal and development discourses
are revealed as a means for reconceptualising the role of the state and the emergence of new
forms of hybrid governance in Tagbilaran. Analysis of the operation of BWUI, a public/private water
utility, and the politics of privatisation/private sector participation enables a closer inspection of how
water and water services are politicised and resisted by local publics