“Congress should investigate why Meralco was not held accountable and how laws could be strengthened to truly defend the rights of the people.”

By Richardson Tubo

MANILA – The Makabayan bloc urged the House Committee on Energy on July 13 to investigate Meralco after receiving complaints of alleged incorrect meter readings and unusually high electricity rates.

The effects of the US-Israel attacks on Iran affected local electricity rates, with Meralco citing oil price hikes as a factor in their monthly residential rate increase. Electricity rates surged a total of P1.876 per kilowatt-hour in seven months, surpassing a whole year’s increase of P1.21 in 2025.

However, complaints gathered from social media and from Gabriela’s personal account showed that monthly bills doubled or tripled despite unchanged consumption patterns.

Comparing price hikes between January and July 2026, the supposed increase for a household with an average consumption of 200 kWh was P375.

Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Sarah Elago said that this incident uncovers the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) failure to protect consumers from dubious billings.

“Instead of holding Meralco accountable, ERC passed on the power distributor’s mistake to the consumers,” Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Sarah Elago said in Filipino in a statement.

Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), consumers have the right to demand an investigation and a “transparent, non-discriminatory and reasonable price of electricity.”

Elago said that the investigation aims to review the effectiveness of existing legislation and mechanisms for protecting its citizens and holding private industry stakeholders accountable. 

“Congress should investigate why Meralco was not held accountable and how laws could be strengthened to truly defend the rights of the people.”

While power generation has been declared a private utility operation since 2001, Elago called for restoring public control over essential services such as electricity. “As long as the interests of big corporations are given priority over those of the people, high electricity costs and lack of accountability will continue. It is time to prioritize public service over profit.”

According to the Ibon Foundation, Epira transferred the power sector’s autonomy to benefit selected energy conglomerates, failing its objective of an affordable supply of electricity.

Ibon said that the Philippines ranked first among Southeast Asian countries with high residential electricity rates. Manuel Pangilinan reportedly earned P42.4 billion under Meralco while AboitizPower and Ang-led SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. racked up P26.4 billion and P18.5 billion, respectively. (RTS, DAA)