Anti-Meralco Protests In Cyberspace
Our household’s Meralco bill increased from PhP5,868.60 in March 2010 to PhP8,988.05 for April 2010 or by fifty-three (53%) percent which is no joke by any means. A letter of explanation comes with the bill saying that it is the increase in the generation charge that caused the amount to fly. It further explained that 50 to 60% of the amount billed will not go to Meralco coffer but to their power suppliers like National Power Corporation (NPC), Independent Power Producers (IPP) and Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). No matter what, the very high increase in our electric bills caused a public uproar against Meralco who, as they claim, is just the collector for the generation companies.
Coming as it is during the lean season for i-café business, the increase in power bill will certainly cause hardship to some. While some i-cafés had lower power consumption due to less customers during the month of April, the amount they have to pay is still higher than the previous month. As electricity consumers, everyone of us has no option but to pay unless you choose to have your connection cut, close your shop temporarily and endure the heat of the season.
The increase in our electricity charges comes at a time when the mainstream press is very busy on the campaign sorties of candidates in the May 10 national election so the public uproar against our very high Meralco bills for April is going unnoticed. Having no way of doing the protest in the street at this time, an online protest is created at Facebook entitled 1,000,000 Against MERALCO and NAPOCOR Electricity Price Hike. All concerned Meralco customers are welcome to join the protest which, as of this writing, has 72,364 members.
Yes, our electric bill is from 9,000 to 14,000. My goodness, and recently there was news that they earned 1 billion pesos. Dapat talaga mag protest.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe Meralco would ‘mind’ the cyberspace protests. They’ve been having a lot of protest from the people but they never cared.
If there’s only other electricity provider, this price would definitely go down. So the real cause is ‘monopoly’.
.-= dodimar´s last blog ..Reflection on Isaiah 40:30-31 =-.
Well, if it’s any comfort, MERALCO is not the only culprit. Here in Lipa, Batangas, we are covered by BATELEC or Batangas Electric Cooperative. Our bill also increased from 1,600 to 2,400.
The energy crisis is not only confined to MERALCO customers nor Philippine electricity consumers. Worldwide po to. See Bill Gates TED talk “Innovation to 0”. Where he mentioned there “World wide Energy Crisis”
Sir Ed, di po gumagana End button ko. Anybody else experiencing this on this blog?
.-= dannybuntu´s last blog ..The New BPO Paradigm =-.
Not sure, but is electricity the most monopolized “resources”?
.-= dodimar´s last blog ..Mother’s Day 2010 =-.
Meralco should not be allowed to increase its prices on a whim. It’s not like their clients can shop around for another supplier of electricity on a whim either.
We’re being sucker punched left and right, and the government is not doing a thing about it. Oh, they can delay, but soon as they get the go signal, they’ll jack up price to get the same amount anyway.