LAWMAKERS will look into the sudden increase in the electricity bill of Manila Electric Company’s (Meralco) customers for the month of May amid numerous complaints that it has been receiving.
Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco, chair of the House committee on energy who co-chairs the Joint Congressional Energy Commission (JCEC) with Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, said a hearing with energy stakeholders will be held on Friday.
The virtual meeting, however, will focus on the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on the energy sector, on initiatives to address the pandemic, and on medium- to long term-projections for the energy sector in light of COVID-19.
Velasco said lawmakers are free to inquire “into recent reports of over-billing and compel energy stakeholders to find a solution that would best serve their consumers and stakeholders.”
The JCEC has invited resource persons from the Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and Distribution Utilities, including Meralco.
Quezon City Rep. Anthony “Bong” Suntay, a vice chair of the panel, said a separate hearing will be scheduled by the panel because the issue was only briefly tackled in a recent meeting.
He said panel members agreed it would be better to invite Meralco officials so they can explain, along with officials of the Energy Regulatory Commission who came up with the formula for the billing.
Suntay said he has heard numerous complaints from customers who were shocked upon seeing their latest electricity bills.
Power for People Coalition (P4P), a clean energy and consumer rights group, has said Meralco should be made to explain the sudden jump in consumption reported by some consumers who also suffered from more power interruptions during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
The group noted that Meralco had 52 tripping events since May 6 and some consumers discovered increases in recorded consumption by as much as three times during the ECQ as reflected in their bills.
Suntay said Meralco should be given the chance to explain first since it is also possible that a mistake has been committed.
Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga has said the latest bills reflect the “full impact” of the ECQ which forced Filipinos to stay home, while the bills for March and April were based on the average consumption for the previous three months — from December 2019 to February 2020.
The adjustments for the March and April bills were then reflected in the May statement which may be settled on a staggered basis in four months.
In a videoconference last week with members of the House energy panel, Meralco first vice president Jose Ronald Valles said the company suspended meter reading activities during the lockdown in March as part of measures to protect its employees from contracting COVID-19. Meter reading resumed on May 6 for residential customers.
The Energy Regulatory Commission and Meralco also gave reassurance that the electricity bill after May will be adjusted to reflect the difference between actual meter readings and the billing estimates during the lockdown.
Meralco rates increased to P8.9951 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for the month of April from ₱8.8901 per kWh in March, which roughly translates to a ₱21 increase in the total bill of a typical household consuming 200 kWh a month.
For this month, Meralco slashed the rate to P8.7468 per kWh because of low demand in Metro Manila amid the enhanced community quarantine.
