EXCUSE me, we’re not the only ones charging increased electricity rates.
Or so this seems to be the most ready recourse Meralco can avail of in the face of resurging complaints from Metro Manila consumers. The metropolis is entirely served by Meralco.
It is understandable that consumers complain of high rates and bad service. Understand, too, that almost always, politicians latch on the popular issue as much for the media mileage it creates as for the imperatives of their jobs as crafters of legislations for finding solutions to the problem.
The issue is necessarily distorted when social media practitioners join in the fray. These content creators are more interested in generating “likes” and “shares” for their works which net them financial gains rather than the noble virtue of promoting public service.
Fortunately, well-meaning sectors come forward and genuinely contribute their share in clarifying the issues in their proper perspective.
A source criticized the tendency to view high electricity rates as an issue that begins and ends with Meralco.
“It is not quite so,” he says.
Meralco does service only Metro Manila and certain other sections of the Southern Luzon economic corridor. For most parts of the country, electricity is delivered by various electric cooperatives.
But all these cooperatives are subject to the general policies of the Energy Regulatory Commission, the reason why their electricity rates appear one and the same with that of Meralco.
Ergo, in the minds of the general populace, Meralco controls the energy sector nationwide.
When electricity rates increase anywhere in the nation, it’s none else than Meralco has done it.
“Nothing is farther from the truth,” says the source, who is privy to Meralco operations. “In many parts of the country, consumers pay rates that rival — or even exceed — those in Metro Manila. They’re excessive and certainly a big burden to consumers in the provinces. And unlike Metro Manila, many provincial communities endure something far worse than expensive electricity — unreliable electricity. Brownouts remain a recurring fact of life.”
According to the source, Visayas grid has been persistently on yellow alert.
“It has become the new normal.”
What does it mean?
It means its rate of charging electricity will be the benchmark for the country.
Let me quote a Philippine News Agency report.
“Electric cooperatives (ECs) across Eastern Visayas are expected to implement higher electricity generation charges for the July 2026 billing period following a significant increase in charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
“Based on preliminary billing statements released by the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP), the WESM operator, the latest billings of 11 ECs in Eastern Visayas reached P1.187 billion. Forty-eight percent of the amount was attributed to line loss and congestion charges.”
For the information of the public, these charges, also known as line rental, arise from transmission constraints and power losses in the grid, which typically increase during periods of limited power supply and high electricity demand.
If the Visayas was the benchmark for nationwide electricity operation, then this is where the focus should be.
Every politician that has ever made a noise about the issue here in Metro Manila must treat this as a nationwide issue. It has been well covered in the media anyway, with a detailed account of how Visayan electric consumers are groaning under the oppressive cost of electricity.
Or if there has been effort at all in this regard, none ever made the headlines.
The inconvenient truth is that the latest increase in electricity prices was not the result of one distribution utility waking up one morning and deciding to charge consumers more. The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) itself pointed to higher WESM prices brought about by tighter supply conditions, power plant outages and transmission constraints — factors affecting power systems across the country.
On our part, we observe that much of the public discussion continues to reduce a complex energy market into a simplistic narrative of assigning blame to a single company — usually a big distribution utility like Meralco.
This blame game should stop. Rather, ask the pertinent questions.
For instance, why do supply shortages continue to push market prices upward? Why are investments in new generation and transmission struggling to keep pace with demand?
If we truly care to find a solution, why don’t we ask why some provinces continue to suffer both high electricity rates and unreliable service? Why do these structural problems receive only fleeting attention while political grandstanding enjoys sustained coverage?
Electricity has become an easy political talking point precisely because everyone pays for it.
But consumers deserve more. We deserve leaders willing to explain the difficult realities of the power sector and pursue reforms and energy policies that will solve our problems.
Cherry-picking one utility while ignoring the broader challenges confronting the entire electricity sector does not make power more affordable. It merely makes the debate more convenient.
Consumers, whether in Metro Manila, Eastern Visayas, Mindanao or anywhere else in the country, all deserve affordable, reliable electricity.
Let’s have an honest diagnosis and identify solutions that recognize the problem for what it truly is. No one should be left behind, just because they are in the farthest parts of the country.