Remove all misplaced electric poles, ERC told

MANILA,  Philippines - A House leader on Monday said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) should compel the power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to remove all its poles that are sticking out of roads that worsen traffic congestion on Metro Manila streets.

 

“Over the years, several thoroughfares in Metro Manila have been widened to allow the easier flow of traffic. As a result, Meralco poles that used to be by the roadside, are now jutting out of the outermost lanes of the expanded streets,"House Deputy Minority Leader Arnel Ty said.

 

“The protruding poles have contributed to bottlenecks because of the inability of motorists to freely use the outermost lanes of the enlarged roads,” Ty said.

 

He urged the ERC to direct Meralco to submit an inventory of all its poles that are jamming lanes, and then give the nation’s largest distribution utility a mandatory deadline to take them all out.

 

"We cannot understand why, despite its huge earnings, Meralco is unable to spend fast enough to get rid of these unwanted traffic obstructions and threats to public safety,” Ty said.

 

Meralco has blamed the Department of Public Works and Highways for failing to coordinate all road widening projects with the distribution utility.

 

It said it has to draw up a plan and set aside a budget every time it has to relocate poles. To transfer the poles, the company said it may have to acquire extra land by the new roadside

 

 “It is not right for Meralco to delay spending for the extraction of these hazardous traffic barriers, while the company continues to pay billions of pesos in cash dividends to shareholders,” Ty said.

 

He said Meralco is rewarding shareholders another P6.66 billion in cash dividends on September 18. This is on top of the P7.27 billion worth of dividends the company gave shareholders on May 18, he added.

 

The company earlier reported a net profit of P9.67 billion from January to June this year, up 2.5 percent from the P9.44 billion it booked in the same six-month period in 2013.