Meralco boosts program to address urban blight

MANILA, Philippines — The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the largest electric power distribution company in the Philippines, is intensifying its program to address urban blight.

Meralco said it has ramped up efforts to address urban blight, particularly the survey and correction of low-sagging wires, removal of illegal wires attached to its poles, and conduct of pole clearing operations.

The move is part of the power distributor’s advocacy to promote public safety.

“At present, we are diligently inspecting our Meralco facilities, particularly our poles and the wires attached. Through physical inspection and the reports we are getting, we are able to know if there is a need to fix such facilties,” Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga said.

“Rest assured that all our initiatives at the moment is geared towards a massive pole inspection initiative. Probably before the year ends, we will at least address most of these concerns,” he said.

As part of its program to address urban blight, Zaldarriaga said Meralco is undertaking an aggressive pole clearing operations wherein the company is replacing old and leaning poles.

Meralco is also inspecting closely poles for illegal wires attached to these structures.

Zaldarriaga said illegal wire attachments to its poles pose operational risks and endanger lives.

“These attachments, if it remains unaddressed, compromises the integrity of our facility and poses a danger to the community due to risk of falling down because they are compromised,” he said.

Meralco has appealed to cable and telco companies to coordinate with the distribution utility and follow the process for wire attachment applications so that these can be properly assessed.

“We are appealing to telco and cable companies to secure the necessary approvals before attaching to our facilities,” Zaldarriaga said.

“We also ask the public to help promote public safety by reporting incidents of illegal attachments to authorities,” he said.

With the continuous energization of new customers from both ordinary service and project-covered applications, Meralco had a total customer count of 7.716 million as of the end of June.

Meanwhile, Meralco has reiterated call to its qualified customers, particularly beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and other marginalized households, to apply for the lifeline rate program to continue getting discounts on their electricity bills.

Meralco said qualified customers under the lifeline rate program should have a monthly electricity consumption of 100 kilowatt hours or below to avail the discount ranging from 20 percent to 100 percent in their Meralco electricity bills depending on their actual consumption.

The government recently moved the full implementation of the program from September 2023 to January 2024.

All distribution utilities are instructed by the government to exert more aggressive promotion efforts to disseminate information on the program and to continue accepting and processing applications.