Meralco refunds: the real picture

This is to clarify Neal Cruz’s reference to a Meralco refund. He said, “the Supreme Court recently ordered Meralco to refund to their consumers overcollections it has accumulated. Meralco has started refunding those amounts” (Inquirer, 6/9/12).

Was he referring to the recent refund order obtained by the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reform? Or the refund won by Lawyers against Monopoly and Genaro Lualhati in 2003? Even this latter refund has not been completed up to now, and we are waiting for the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to render its report to the Supreme Court on its compliance with the 9-year-old order.

More importantly, we are waiting for the ERC to clarify how Meralco refunded the consumers in both cases. If the Meralco refund was made through offsetting against consumption, then we actually paid for our own refund because all costs of Meralco for distribution (including, in this case, generation, system loss and taxes) are charged to us. To dispel doubts of a self-refund, Meralco must show that all electricity consumed under the offset arrangement is paid for from net earnings or new investments by the owners and investors of Meralco, who are accountable and answerable for the overcollections that resulted in padded profits and earnings for them.

Meralco’s refunding of its overcollections raises further questions on the source and application of the refund, as well as on the insulation of the Meralco cash flow, which is funded entirely by us, captive

customers, from that refund.

We are still waiting for ERC’s response to our questions. Or maybe Cruz can help us obtain the answer from ERC and Meralco.

—ROMEO L. JUNIA,

philcconsumerforum@gmail.com