Meralco’s guessing game, part 2?

“Perlas na bilog wag tutulog tulog, sabihin agad sa akin ang sagot… babebibobu!”—Manang Bola, “Batibot”

With varying community quarantine measures not going away anytime soon, will Meralco again consult their in-house Manang Bola for our bills?

A few months, Meralco customers got the “shock” of their lives when they started receiving sky-high electricity bills as a result of questionable estimations and other mysterious charges. When Meralco was questioned by the Senate, it came up with a vague bill translation. Consumers are baffled. We want a more detailed explanation of the bill. What are these charges? Why are they charging us this and that?

Consumers like me are no longer sitting idly. We demand to know more about our electricity bills. We want to become active participants when it comes to issues that directly affect us. We are furious with our high electricity bills.

We need to go beyond tokenistic legislative hearings that only allowed Meralco to apologize instead of being penalized for what it had done and what it had failed to do. We need to be assured that companies like Meralco will be made responsible and be held accountable for taking advantage of our trust, our money, and even our mental health, in the midst of a global pandemic.

With the lack of transparency on how distribution utilities operate in this country, this couldn’t be just a Meralco

issue, but could also be a problem happening across the country. In addition, the lack of proactive legislative oversight made this bill shock possible. Now is the best time to check if distribution utilities such as Meralco are taking advantage of the pandemic.

Electricity cost is getting out of hand. As education and work are now mostly being done at home, this adds further cost—and therefore additional burden—to consumers. And while all these are happening, we also have businesses closing down and more Filipinos losing jobs. We cannot afford high electricity bills now. It’s like adding insult to injury.

Consumers have been complaining about the high cost and instability of our electricity since time immemorial, but we just can’t go on complaining. We need to act.

Now is the best time for consumers and businesses to come together and ensure a transparent and accountable energy industry that works for the benefit of the people.

We call on the newly appointed Energy Regulatory Commission heads to take a look into this issue. High electricity rates have been a problem even before the COVID-19 pandemic. It got worse during ECQ, and with the pandemic not slowing down anytime soon, it might be months or years before we can go back to our usual, pre-pandemic routines. We do not want to be held hostage by companies like Meralco and be made to pay dubious bills. We don’t want this to continue even after the pandemic is gone. Meralco should play fair and put the interest of the public before its own.

We call on both the House and the Senate committees on energy and consumer welfare to wield their oversight function over these issues, as we fear that Meralco’s guessing game is also being practiced by other distribution utilities in other parts of the country. We need to look beyond Metro Manila and check other Meralco franchises and other distribution utilities in the country.

It’s time we consumers led the way in taking Meralco to task. And it’s time for the government, regulators, and legislators to put public interest front and center. We refuse to be just mere pawns in the never-

ending cat and mouse game that Meralco plays with our bills, our wallets, our sanity, and our integrity as a people.

Jaydar Medrozo
Cebu-based consumer rights advocate