Olongapo folk protest high power bills

OLONGAPO CITY, Zambales, Philippines — Electricity consumers here asked the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to look into a private power distributor’s alleged overcharging of power consumption during quarantine.

Michael Macapagal, lead convenor of the consumer advocacy group Supergapo, filed a complaint in the ERC against Olongapo Electricity Distribution Co. Inc. (OEDC), citing alleged incorrect billings and collection of exorbitant fees.

“The spike in OEDC’s billing is mind-boggling. Just look at the complaints filed against Meralco (Manila Electric Co.). Strangely, we are having very similar issues here in Olongapo,” Macapagal said.

Consumers of Meralco, the country’s biggest power retailer, have also been complaining about high electricity bills.

Macapagal, who is a board director of the state-run Philippine National Oil Co., had told ERC Chair Agnes Devanadera that OEDC started sending out disconnection notices to customers.

Online petition

More than 2,500 residents have signed an online petition calling on the ERC to stop OEDC from collecting what they called “overpriced” charges reflected on their bills.

The petition, spearheaded by several local groups on the online platform Change.org and written in Filipino, urged the ERC to ask OEDC to justify the power bills, many of which reflected amounts that were reportedly double or triple the average monthly bills.

It asked why consumers were made to shoulder the system loss charges, value-added tax and the subsidies that supposedly belonged to the company’s corporate social responsibility.

Average billing

In a statement, OEDC said the account components reflected on the electricity bills included fees paid to other companies that operate and maintain the electricity network, distribution charges, government revenue, taxes and subsidies, as well as lifeline and senior citizens’ charges.

Norbie de Guzman, consumer welfare desk officer of OEDC, said that since the entire Luzon was placed on enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) on March 16, some electric cooperatives and private distribution utilities, including OEDC, used averaged billing that was in line with an ERC advisory.

“In computing the average billing for March, we based on the kilowatt-hour consumption and not on the bills,” she said, adding that they referred to the total kWh consumption for December, January and February for each household, and divided this by three to get the March billing.

“In relation to this averaging for March billing, we understand the possibility of over or underbilling of our customers, especially that most of the days covered under the March billing were covered by the ECQ period,” she said.

—Joanna Rose Aglibot