Citing the financial strain on families dealing with rising food and fuel costs amid Middle East geopolitical tensions, Senator Imee Marcos is pushing for the immediate amendment of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to stop excessive consumer billing by the Manila Electric Company (Meralco).
Marcos, a member of the Senate PROTECT Committee, teamed up with fellow lawmakers to grill the power distribution giant over spikes in electricity bills during the past two months.
The senator asserted that rewriting the EPIRA law is crucial to eliminating unfair pass-on costs and dismantling what she labeled as the “compounded calculation” of system loss fees.
In addition to legislative reforms, Marcos called on the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to conduct concurrent investigations into Meralco’s current billing mechanics.
”This isn’t just about following the law; it’s a matter of compassion for the people. In the middle of a crisis, it should be the big companies adjusting, not the consumers who are being bled dry by the high cost of electricity,” Marcos stated.
The lawmaker pointed out that Meralco’s generation rates consistently outpace those of other distribution utilities. She further alleged that supplemental ancillary fees, driven by “magical computations,” unnecessarily inflate monthly statements.
According to Marcos, the current framework allows for systemic “double-charging.” She explained that when currency fluctuations or global fuel spikes drive baseline rates up, system loss charges automatically increase in tandem, even if the actual physical loss of electricity along transmission lines remains completely unchanged.
”It’s like you’re playing with the computation just to make the bills heavier. The cost of electricity goes up once, but you charge us two or three times across different line items,” the senator asserted.
Marcos also turned her attention to standby power charges, noting that end-users are being billed for backup capacity they never actually consumed.
“And what hurts is that even this standby power is still slapped with a system loss charge. This is overwhelming for families who are already struggling,” Marcos explained.
The senator heavily criticized Meralco for passing down the financial burden of mandated social discounts—such as lifeline rates for low-income households and senior citizen subsidies—directly to regular taxpayers.
“Meralco is the biggest utility (firm). Can’t Meralco just absorb that instead of passing it on to other consumers? Why do the small people have to carry the burden for all these discounts?” Marcos said.
Lastly, Marcos challenged Meralco’s standard defense that increased summer demand triggered the bill spikes. She countered with data showing that actual electricity consumption dropped from 2.711 billion kWh in February down to 2.644 billion kWh in April.
She also condemned the multi-layered application of Value-Added Tax (VAT), which is repeatedly levied on individual billing components like transmission and system losses, further compounding the financial burden on consumers.