No disconnection ‘til August — Meralco
The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) on Monday said it will not issue disconnection notices until the end of August to provide relief to customers.
In a virtual briefing, Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said the distributor looks to extend the moratorium on disconnections even past August to help consumers recover from the pandemic.
“We will not issue any disconnection notice until the end of August. The notices might come out by the first week of September but we are studying if it can be extended further,” Zaldarriaga said.
He reiterated there is a payment plan of four to six months for the four months of unpaid bills incurred during the quarantine depending on the customer’s electricity consumption.
Meralco Head of Commercial Operations Agnes R. Macob clarified the June bill was higher as it reflected the customer’s actual consumption during the four months of the lockdown period.
Meralco billed customers based on average consumption from December to February because meter readings could not be done in March and April due to the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus disease.
Averaging consumption was based on regulator orders who said the difference in actual consumption would be settled in future bills.
Macob said 2.8 million customers representing 40 percent of its customer base have yet to receive their bills in June as the utility restarted reading the meters with the easing of lockdown measures.
She said those who already received their bills in May settle their dues starting mid-June, while those who are yet for billing this month will start paying their installment bills on 15 July.
In a statement, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said Senate will summon Meralco anew after it failed to explain the surge in monthly bills.
On 29 May, the Energy Regulation Commission also issued a show-cause order requiring Meralco, a publicly listed company, to explain why it supposedly flouted the commission’s order to allow customers to settle their bills in four equal monthly payments.