Palace intervention sought on Meralco rate hike bid

The National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) will ask Malacañang to stop the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) from coming out with the decision on the unbundling rate petition of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Nasecore president Pete Ilagan said the ERC did not give in to its request to scrap Meralco’s pending petition for unbundling of rate.

"This is why we will ask the executive and maybe the legislative bodies to step in for the sake of the welfare of the consumers," he said.

Ilagan explained that under Sec. 36 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), the unbundling of rates should be done simultaneously with the structural and functional unbundling of business activities for power utilities.

"We are asking the ERC to delay for at least a month the decision for Meralco’s unbundling petition to pave the way for the public consultations on the business separation unbundling plan (BSUP)," he said.

He also called for ERC to recall all the other previous unbundling rate orders issued by the commission to various electric cooperatives and distribution utilities (DUs).

"How can we know if the unbundled rates are objective if we do not know where these rates will be assigned under the BSUP," he said.

At present, the ERC is still conducting hearings on the unbundled rate petition of DUs including that of Meralco. But ERC plans to release its decision on the unbundling application of the Lopez-controlled power firm within this month.

Meralco is asking for a P1.12 per kilowatthour (kWh) increase in its unbundled rate, including a 30 centavo increase in basic rate.