‘Complainant shock’: ERC receives around 47K electricity bill complaints
MANILA, Philippines — The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has recently received around 47,000 consumer complaints regarding their electricity bills, its chair told senators on Friday.
ERC chair Agnes Devanadera disclosed this during the Senate energy committee hearing into the consumer issues regarding the so-called “bill shocks,” or the unexplained high electricity rates for consumers.
“Sa ngayon po kung meron po tayong bill shock, meron naman kaming complainant shock dahil 47,000 na hindi ho namin na-anticipate at all,” she said.
“Ang dami po talagang dumadating, and with the social media, we’re getting complaints though Facebook, through text messages and emails… We are organizing our people to be able to respond to the 47,000,” she added.
Devanadera said that the ERC is painstakingly looking over each complaint, and referred them to the respective power distribution firms.
“Iniisa-isa namin kanino nagrereklmo then we get in touch with the distribution company,” she further said.
The Senate hearing was opened after Meralco customers have complained of “bill shock” as the power retailer imposed an average scheme for electric bills based on three months of power usage since actual power reading was suspended due to the quarantine period imposed due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
