Meralco rate hike comes ‘at worst possible time’

MANILA, Philippines — The latest rate hike of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) drew flak from two former lawmakers who said it came at the worst possible time.

Former Bayan Muna Representatives Carlos Isagani Zarate and Teddy Casiño on Monday said the increase would be an added burden to consumers already suffering from the summer heat and economic hardships.

READ: Meralco rate rises 72 centavos/kWh in April bill

For Zarate, Meralco’s increase of P0.7226 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for April will push the overall electricity rate to P13.0127/kWh, which means that households consuming 200 kWh will see their monthly bills go up by P145.

“This is the bitter fruit of over two decades of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira). It has transformed power generation and distribution into a business for profit, not a public service. Unless Epira is scrapped, consumers will continue to suffer from these unjust and arbitrary price hikes,” Zarate said.

For Makabayan coalition’s senatorial candidate Casiño, the power rate increase comes “at the worst possible time” as households naturally consume more electricity to stay cool.

He scored Meralco for being “quick to pass price increases, yet it is reluctant to return overcharges, proposing a trickle down of returns in three years of its P19 billion overcharging from 2022-2024” despite a profit of P45.1 billion last year.—Jeannette I. Andrade