No disconnections until August — Meralco

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) gave assurance that there will be no line disconnections until the end of August to give customers more time to appraise their electricity bills.

The end-August timeline may also be extended as this is being reviewed by the distribution utility, Meralco spokesperson and public information office head Joe Zaldarriaga said in a virtual briefing yesterday.

Meralco’s priority now is to keep the lights on in all households it serves while completing its meter reading of 6.9 million customers in the franchise area, which started only in late May.

“At present, we already completed our meter readings so by the end of June, all our bills are now based on actual meter readings,” Zaldarriaga said.

As it completes meter readings this month, Meralco said it will extend payment due dates to customers who have yet to receive their June bills to explain to them the computation.

“This will give all consumers more time to understand their bill and at the same time address each and every individual account,” Zaldarriaga said.

“Our current situation now is that we handle concerns of customers individually. We will address and we will continue engaging all of our customers one-on-one. It is definitely challenging but we understand also that there are still questions,” he said.

To address customers’ bill concerns, Meralco is ramping up its manpower and system amid piling complaints in their social media feeds, hotline and business center visits.

“We are trying to keep on augmenting the workforce that we need, improving our processes on the ground to address all their concerns,” Zaldarriaga said.

For the time being, Meralco assured the public there will be no disconnection notices until end-August, which may be extended pending further study. This is as long as customers settle at least one of the installment payments provided by the power distributor.