Bayan Muna seeks Meralco probe
BAYAN MUNA IS seeking an investigation into the sudden spike in the bills charged by the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) on consumers in Metro Manila over the past two months.
As meter reading activities was suspended since March, Meralco based its billing on the average consumption of consumers from December 2019 to February 2020. Actually, however, this has not been followed as in the case of one consumer whose bill drastically spiked from P2,672 in March to P9,358.52 in May.
Bayan Muna pointed out that Meralco is clearly exploiting the pandemic to accumulate more profits while “crucifying consumers.” Relatedly, the group called for the junking of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act which is being used by Meralco to monopolize the power industry and continually impose rate hikes. The most recent hike was the P0.105/kilowatt hour rate hike imposed in April.