MANILA, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has completed the delivery of personalized letters to its 4.1 million customers explaining their electricity bills, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said yesterday.
The chief of the Department of Energy (DOE) also followed up on actions taken by Meralco to resolve consumer complaints previously discussed with the company’s executives, as the agency continues to receive a high volume of consumer complaints regarding their May/June electricity bills.
In a letter addressed to Cusi, Meralco president and CEO Ray Espinosa said the company is “on target to deliver the 4.1 million personalized letters to customers explaining their May 2020 bills (based on actual meter reading) made even more ‘laymanized’ than what we issued for the June bills.”
The delivery of the letters commenced on July 10, and was supposed to have been completed yesterday.
“When I met with Meralco last May, I advised them to re-issue electricity bills based on actual meter readings and disregard previous bills that were made on estimated consumption. We met again in June to discuss their implementation plan, and at that time, I underscored the importance of properly and clearly communicating with their consumers,” Cusi said.
“Meralco informed us then that they will be issuing advisories explaining the May and June billings through letters, social media posts, and print media notices,” he added.
Espinosa also said Meralco has deployed “virtual agents” in select Bayad Center outlets within its franchise area so that the affected customers can talk to a Meralco employee via computer setup regarding their billing concerns.
The power distributor has also deployed additional manpower to handle complaints in various digital channels such as emails, Facebook and Twitter.
To recall, customers were billed from March to May based on their average consumption from December to February, as actual meter readings were not conducted due to the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine or ECQ.
Later, numerous complaints of bill shock bombarded the Senate, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the DOE.
Meanwhile, Espinosa said no convenience fees would be charged for Meralco online payments until the end of general community quarantine, as pushed by regulators and lawmakers.
Bills paid via the Meralco App Online Payment Facility go through a payment gateway operated and maintained by PayMaya, which is linked to the Visa and Mastercard networks.
An affiliate of Meralco, Paymaya charges the Meralco customer a convenience fee of P47.00 per transaction.
During the ECQ, Meralco shouldered the convenience fee charged by the payment gateway provider for payments made through the Meralco online app or website for payment transactions between March 15 and May 16, amounting to P12.6 million for approximately 268,000 transactions.
“We welcome Meralco’s assurance that they have been acting upon the various issues being raised by consumers. In this time of pandemic, our people are plagued with concerns about their health and safety, as well as their job and financial security. The government and private sector should work hand-in-hand to alleviate, and not add to their burdens,” Cusi said.
Review policies
As the specter of high electricity rate continues to haunt consumers, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said he wants the ERC to review its current policies.
“Please review your current policy. There are a lot of companies that either have liabilities to the government or can enforce measures to ease the people’s burden, and yet the ERC chooses to side with the power producers or the owner of the company,” he said.
“Be more progressive in interpreting the law. We have to interpret this in favor of the public,” the Taguig-Pateros congressman added.
“I’m not saying you’re not doing your job. Let me make this clear, this is no different from ABS-CBN. Just because what you’re doing is legal, that doesn’t mean you’re not abusing the system,” Cayetano said.
“The airwaves are owned by the government. So, in the same manner, electricity is imbued with public interest, it’s also a public utility. The same thing with water,” he said.
ERC executive director Floresinda Baldo-Digal disclosed during her presentation Wednesday that they were handling 50,000 complaints from consumers, mostly concerning electric bill shock.
“We commit to finish it. We now have 70 people working solely on it,” she told panel members.
House Deputy Minority Leader Joseph Stephen Paduano earlier said ERC chief Agnes Devanadera had assured him that the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) had nothing to do with so-called electric bill shocks.
Paduano bared Devanadera’s assurance at a recent hearing on the issue by the committee on energy headed by Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco.
“It’s been going around that NGCP is one of the reasons why there is a spike in electric bills. It’s very clear, the ERC chair gave a categorical answer that the NGCP has nothing to do with it – the spike in electric bills,” Paduano of Abang Lingkod party-list said.
At the hearing, Paduano said he categorically asked Devanadera if it’s NGCP’s Interim Maximum Annual Revenue (IMAR) that had pushed electricity rates higher.
In response, Devanadera clarified that the IMAR – approved by the ERC in February – does not affect present electricity rates.
She said the approved IMAR reflected lower annual revenue for NGCP that caused the reduction in the transmission tariff.