City folk protest power bill hike

OLONGAPO CITY: Power consumers and netizens in this city on Monday filed a complaint before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) against power distributor Olongapo Electricity Distribution Co. (OEDC) after their electricity bills jumped three times the normal billing from March to May this year.

Michael Macapagal, head of the Partido Demokratikong Pilipinolocal chapter, a member of the board of directors of the

Philippine National Oil Co. and lead convenor of consumer advocacy group SuperGapo, filed the complaint on behalf of the people of Olongapo City after receiving numerous complaints from customers of the power utility firm.

Macapagal said monthly electricity bills from March until May 15 this year increased threefold.

“It is simply unconscionable for the OEDC to issue these electric billings, which have doubled or tripled, and in some cases five times, even sometimes 10 times, the normal amount prior to the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ),” he added.

“People want to take action. They want to go to the streets,” Macapagal

said.

“In the end, cooler heads prevailed and we opted to do it on social media through the Facebook group page SuperGapo,” he added.

SuperGapo, with thousands of members, has been working with another group, Bangon Bagong Gapo, also a Facebook group page formed recently with the same objective in providing a forum for consumers to air their grievances against the OEDC.

In a meeting with city officials a couple of days ago, the OEDC explained that it used the average usage prior to the ECQ since there was no meter-reading because of the quarantine.

The bills received by the consumers, however, do not reflect their average monthly usage.

“The sudden increase in power bills is outrageous,” Macapagal said.

He added that everybody’s complaining and consumers demand an explanation from the OEDC about this sudden spike.

Macapagal said he had seen the complaints against Meralco and they were basically the same.

“What has happened in Metro Manila is happening here in Olongapo,” he said.

Macapagal, a Duterte appointee, wrote a letter toEnergy Regulatory Commission [ERC] Chairman Agnes Devanadera explaining the consumers’ complaints.

City officials called OEDC representatives to a meeting to explain why consumers were complaining regarding their electricity bills that had doubled or tripled.

The power utility distributor said the increase reflected its computation based on actual meter reading.

“My understanding is that President Rodrigo Duterte appointed me to the government to advance the interest, and to serve and protect the people of the Philippines. That is what I’m doing. That’s my mandate from the President,” Macapagal said.

According to him, SuperGapo has formed an alliance with several nationwide consumers advocacy groups, in particular, the P4P or Power for People Coalition, and they intend to coordinate their efforts in pursuit of their common goal — to act as watchdog organizations against big businesses like power utility companies.

“The people of Olongapo are struggling. They’ve lost their jobs, their livelihood, because of this [coronavirus] pandemic,” he said.

“Olongapo, sad to say, is far from the likes of Gapan City in Nueva Ecija or Ormoc City in Leyte. What little help they ( Olongapo residents) received from the government isn’t enough. What our people deserve is a waiver. They shouldn’t be made to pay for their electricity bills in the months affected by the ECQ,” Macapagal added.