Meralco robs its customers; ERC inutile

By Al S. Vitangcol 3rd February 13, 2021
https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/02/13/opinion/columnists/meralco-robs-its-customers-erc-inutile/840250/

METRO Manila power consumers were complaining this week against the Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) high-handed ways of disconnecting their electric service. Such moves of Meralco show its arbitrary use of power in a dictatorial and tyrannical fashion. It reeks of oppression and belligerent attitude towards its customers.

Hundreds, maybe even thousands of “Advice of Service Disconnection” were sent by Meralco to “delinquent” customers, and at the same time, their power supplies were disconnected. The service disconnection advice reads: “Please be informed that due to your failure to settle electric bill/s within the period specified in your contract with us, we disconnected your electric service on February 5, 2021. If you wish to have your service reconnected, kindly settle your unpaid account specified below (including the reconnection fee of P44.80) with any of our branch offices most convenient to you. Otherwise, we will be constrained to terminate your contract with us 30 days from the disconnection date and refer it to our legal department for appropriate legal action.”

Why did I say that this is tyrannical and oppressive? For one, no notices of disconnection were properly given to the electric power consumers. The “supposed” notices were dropped in mailboxes, inserted in house doors and left in garage gates. What happens if the notice got lost? The poor consumer would have no electricity the day after. This is not the proper way of serving notices.

Why is this a harsh action on the part of Meralco? Well, consumers were not given ample time to pay their bills. In fact, the subsequent month’s bill is not yet ready, and here comes the lineman disconnecting the service for failure of the consumer to pay the current month’s billing.



‘Delinquent’ customers
I enclosed the word delinquent in quotes because most of these customers were not really delinquent at all. It was Meralco’s automated billing system that tagged them as delinquents.

This fiasco started sometime in June 2020 when Meralco, in the guise of helping its customers, sent the letters to the latter saying that, “To help ease your bills payment, unpaid balance from bills due during the quarantine period has been converted into a 4-month installment payment arrangement starting July 15, 2020.” It listed the installment payment dates as 07/15/2020, 08/15/2020, 09/15/2020 and 10/15/2020.

Meralco’s epic fail lies in its computation of installment payments. Even if the customer had already paid the full amount, the system would still bill the same in installment reflecting that the installment payments were not paid at all. What kind of information technology (IT) personnel does Meralco have that they cannot even program their system in an accurate manner?

In sum, a customer who had paid the bill in full would be tagged as a delinquent, insofar as the installment payments are concerned. This is outrageous and idiotic.



Meralco’s canned responses
Aside from the monthly installment payments, Meralco readjusted the billings in May 2020 and reflected them in the August 2020 billing as “proration adjustment.” Again, their IT system went berserk in making the correct computations. Meralco’s first vice president, Ferdinand O. Geluz, wrote to some of the complaining customers where “[he] committed to resolving [their] concerns at the soonest possible time.” How soon is soon? As far as I know, most of these concerns remain unresolved to date.

Geluz wrote again to those customers paying in full: “Thank you for settling your August 2020 bill in full, which includes the proration adjustment. x x x Please be assured that your full payment was received and credited to your account’s unpaid balance. x x x If you wish to reallocate your payment for the proration adjustment to your August 2020 bill, kindly contact us through any of the channels listed below and we will ensure that this is corrected in the succeeding monthly statements that you will receive.”

What the heck is this? The consumer should call Meralco for it to correct the monthly statement? This is egregious. It should be Meralco’s responsibility to issue accurate billings and not the other way around.



Service disconnection is illegal
Prior to any service disconnection, a proper notice must be provided to the customer. This is to ensure that the customer is given an opportunity to settle the payment for the unpaid bill or bills. A notice of service disconnection becomes a mere scrap of paper if it is not properly served.

To reiterate, the “supposed” notices were dropped in mailboxes, inserted in house doors, and left in garage gates by Meralco personnel.

Meralco’s advice of service disconnection mentions “refer[ring] it to [their] legal department for appropriate action.” Thus, their notice must be served in accordance with what are the requirements of the law. The Revised Rules of Court state that notices must be served “by personal delivery to the party concerned, to his/her authorized representative, with a person having charged thereof, or with a person of sufficient age and discretion residing thereon.”

Is the mailbox a person of sufficient age and discretion? Absolutely not. Are house doors authorized representatives of the electricity consumers? Are garage gates persons having charge of the house itself? Meralco must adhere to the law in serving their notices of service disconnection. An illegal procedure cannot give rise to a legal claim.



ERC alerted but to naught
The last time that I read its website, it said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is an “independent electric power industry regulator that equitably promotes and protects the interest of consumers and other stakeholders.” This is only in word, not in deed.

The ERC was furnished with copies of letters/complaints from Meralco customers but to naught. As it is, ERC failed to regulate Meralco and protect the interest of power consumers.