NOTWITHSTANDING public howl over its alleged overcharging, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) managed to secure congressional concurrence for a 25-year extension of its franchise “in the dead of the night.”
For one, Meralco’s exorbitant charges allowed the Philippines to surpass Singapore in the list of Southeast Asian Countries with the highest electricity rate.
Lawyer Wilfredo Garrido, in his Facebook post, said that approval or renewal of a public utility franchise requires transparency through public hearings, which according to him was neither announced or published.
According to Garrido, Medralco had its franchise renewed last year by the House of Representative in the “dead of the night.”
When the franchise of a major public utility is up for renewal, it is usually set for public hearing so that disgruntled customers could interpose objections. Classic example was ABS-CBN in 2020, when no less than the president voiced his disapproval, citing grounds real or imagined, mostly the latter.
Meralco’s franchise was up for renewal last year.
Garrido asked his readers “how many of you would have loved to come out in the open to complain about Meralco’s unconscionable rates, its abysmal service, inscrutable billings, merciless disconnection policy.”
Disgruntled consumers would love to put Manny V. Pangilinan in the hot seat and see him squirm under questioning — just as ABS-CBN chairman Gabby Lopez was flayed alive together with Carlo Katigbak.
I would have asked MVP to account for Meralco’s P30 billion to P50 billion “in yearly profit and why it can’t reduce its rates.”
“I would have also asked if he doesn’t think he overpaid Leandro Leviste’s solar company,” Garrido stated.
ADVANCE COLLECTION
Consider that Meralco doesn’t have to borrow for capital investments. Under the governing Performance Based Regulation (which I have written about a few days ago) consumers pay for Meralco’s investments in advance.
For example, if Meralco tells the Energy Regulatory Commission it needs P10 billion for new transformers, it needs only submit the estimate as part of its so-called Annual Revenue Requirement and the ERC commissioners will ask a few questions then add a few centavos per kilowatt-hour to your bill. It doesn’t need to borrow from the banks.
What Meralco wants, Meralco gets — and the consumers pay in advance through the nose — thanks to the bogus PBR (or performance based regulations) methodology and the pliable ERC commissioners who inflict it on the consumers.
OPULENT LIFESTYLE
MVP is Opus Dei and a bachelor yet he lives in a multi billion-peso palace in South Forbes Park (which he recently paraded on YouTube with Small Laude).
Of course, if you were to ask the stockholders of Meralco — and PLDT, Smart, NLEX, among other companies he controls — he deserves to live in opulence, Garrido said.
All the foregoing questions went unanswered.
Meralco’s franchise bill went sailing through both houses of Congress behind our backs and it was signed into law by Marcos Jr. on April 11, 2025.
How many of you heard about it? It was meant to be, his piece concluded.
PUBLIC OUTRAGE
Mary Elizabeth reacted to the piece saying: “Always wary of midnight deals. And no, never heard of this. An Opus Dei member who accumulates wealth through questionable means, no remorse for the exorbitant bills, and not shy about flaunting his wealth (YT video with Small Laude)…this stereotype of the upper 1% (or is it .5%?) is so commonplace it’s depressing”
Sonny de los Santos said: “In the Philippines, regulatory agencies are in truth “regulated agencies” of businesses they are mandated to regulate.”
Kiko Sanchez was kinder by comparing “Meralco charges of an average P13.8 per kW-hour of electricity, which is about $0.22 per kWh and Metro Manilans don’t get power outages as we do from the provinces “so frequently” and in “longer hours, at times even for a whole day” where electric companies and electric cooperatives charge an average $0.24 per kWh.
We would gladly welcome Meralco to operate in our provinces than the relatively smaller cooperatives in the name of a steady power supply. If Meralco has to tap geothermal power, build solar farms to augment the national grid fed by bunker type power plants, even better for us province people…
Dan Michael Cacamindin said “if that’s the case, not only consumers pay VAT (value added tax), but are directly subsidizing Meralco. WTF!
Bahi Dabasol remarked “and while listed as a public company !’
“Iba talaga si money pangilinan galing ang persuasive power,” described Edgardo Sanchez.
“We have a deep state of the local elite..,” sighed Jie Esguerra.
“Yan ang malalim na epekto sa mamamayan ng PRIVATIZATION,” explained Pablo Castro.
John Dadre was more direct in saying “ginigisa tayo sa sariling mantika ! At walang kabusugan sila habang naghihirap Ang taong bayan !”
Clarito Cairo Jr. said “2022 payback.”
A certain Joel Villanueva said: “Dapat kalusin yun ERC-Department of Energy at mga tongressman na pumapayag sa lahat ng pabor na hinihingi ng Meralco.