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Meralco bill doubled the past month

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powerIt was my daughter who first made me aware of Chuvaness Meralco bill for one month worth PHP 41,902.95 pesos. Poor Cecille has lost sleep and energy to do anything and trying to make sense of this. I too was perplexed when my usual bill of 8,000 pesos suddenly hit close to 15,000 pesos. Thinking it was my two girls airconditioning consumption, I advised them that our electricity bill was just too much. I thought it was that grounded lamp outside the gate.

Really, why does it have to be double that amount? Couldn’t there have been some way for us to slowly absorb the cost?

I can’t imagine how my bill will look like next month. It is bound to go higher. Manila Electric Company (Meralco) customers suffered a double whammy on April 8 with the rotating brownouts worsening to three hours and the announcement of a P0.93 per kilowatt hour (kWh) increase in generation charge. Electricity sold in the Philippines ranks as Asia’s third most expensive commodity, thanks to the decisions made by all presidents since 1986, according to an industry expert here. Each new government program to build a power plant added to the expenses passed on to consumers to explain the high power rates. Can we blame Meralco alone? MERALCO is just a power distributor, they don’t have control over the costs of electricity. The new owners of MERALCO are Manny Pangilinan/MVP of First Pacific/PLDT and the San Miguel Group.

A comment found in Chuvaness entry shows that there are alleged ties to our president.

The power transmission company which delivers electricity around the Phil. is operated by The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP)which is owned by a mainland Chinese company, Calaca High Power (of the Coyiuto) and Monte Oro Grid Resource (of Razon group). It was alleged that these group won the bidding for NGCP because of Razon’s close ties to FG and GMA. However, there were reports a few weeks ago that Henry Sy’s son is buying the shares of the Razon group. With this, we can stop going to SM malls and dept. stores and just go to other malls to shop.

Customers like Chuvaness and I are INFURIATED.

How can our bill be higher than people in the US, Netherlands, Australia, where people earn much, much more?

How can the government allow this? I cannot understand why we have a president who doesn’t care about the people. I am hoping that the next president will address this problem of oppression. Electricity isn’t like PLDT and Globe where you can just switch if you’re unhappy with the service. People need electricity to survive. Our kids need aircon in this heat.

This is why foreign investors don’t want to come here. This bill feels like making me pack up and move to Holland. Merlaco and the government have to realize that when they have these brownouts and high electric rates, investors are gonna pack up and move somewhere else. What is going to happen to the thousands of call center employees that contribute to our economy?

I want to know who is getting rich at our expense because I’m SO MAD AND I’M NOT GONNA TAKE THIS ANYMORE.

I want to know which president Meralco is supoorting. I want to know which presidential and senatorial candidates are willing to make a stand.
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How was your MERALCO bill last month?

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Photo from Chuvaness

41 thoughts on “Meralco bill doubled the past month”

  1. our bill almost doubled as well. from our average 3k it went up to 5. i just got my first job, just took over the electricity bill this january and i really felt it!

  2. from 8k to 12k… but this month we barely used electricity coz we frequent out-of-town and the kids are on vacation… we were expecting it to go down even… oh well… this is a bit of a puzzle to everyone… I also read chuvaness and I don’t know much about the politics behind this electric commodity… thanks for explaining and posting about this

  3. our consumption only increased by 15% but the amount is up by 50%! this is obviously the price that has the issue…this is killing me and of course other breadwinners for sure..id rather buy generator and pay for the fuel than pay for this which seem to have been computed mysteriously….

  4. It’s almost random. They know people expect higher rates in the summer so we get higher rates even though we’re not home most of the time. I used their online calculator and made generous allowances for AC use. I expected around 3.5k (my usual rates are under 3k). This month it’s 4.3k. I’m using a new air-con btw, which is manual and has a high EER rating. I have a very small fridge and I own a laptop. I can’t fathom how I could use that much power. If I had a bathtub and used hot water to fill it, then I can understand.

    They just announced increase rates a few days ago. The bill was for last month’s use.

    Cecille Zamorra’s bill is simply gross. Not only that, it feels very filthy to have that kind of electric consumption, though it’s not her fault. She must be losing sleep indeed.
    .-= BrianB´s last blog ..iPhone iChat update: One-on-One, Group Video Calling, Chat Rooms unearthed in iPhone OS 4.0 SDK =-.

  5. I don’t know about the Netherlands having low electricity rates. Last time I looked, it was at about 16 cents/KwH (or Php 10). So, it is not really that cheap. However, our electricity consumption is low. Average is about 3500 KwH per year. It’s about half of the consumption in the US. Of course, we don’t have aircon here, or water pumps or whatever makes your bills high. We pay only Euro 40/month (Php 2400) for electricity – we’re only two people using it. If you include heating costs (to sort of be more equivalent to your cooling costs), we pay Euro 150/month (Php 9000).
    .-= Carlo Butalid´s last blog ..$5/gallon gasoline isn’t that bad =-.

  6. Pingback: Electricity | Filipino Songwriter & Blogger Ganns Deen

  7. oh my… I just received our bill from MERALCO…. from our 6,600.00 php bill last month, it is now at 11,200.00 php!!! What the hell?!?! What’s up with this?!? Anyone here with the same issue? I also checked out a blog… almost everybody had their bill doubled this April … My goodness!!!

  8. I recently moved into my own place 3 months back and our electricity for last month, which is the first month we used an airconditioning unit was 2,100PHP. We expected a slight increase to this month’s billing to up to 3,000PHP+, but when I received our billing via email, I nearly fell off my chair upon seeing the amount, 4,800PHP.

    Que horror!
    .-= Jenn Manigao´s last blog ..Clean as You Go (CAYG) =-.

  9. our average electricity consumption gives us a bill of 900-1k only. this month… our bill shows 2.5k… it’s insane. now where do we get that? it’s way out of our budget! unless we cut on food/groceries… which is ridiculously insane even more!

  10. i want to KILL THE MERALCO OWNERS…HOW I WISH THEY WILL ALL DIE NOW!

    dito DAPAT MAG STRIKE ANG MGA TAO! tignan mo yang mga loko-loko na MGA LEADER NG STRIKE..MGA CONGRESSMAN NA!SAAN SILA?..mga may-ari nito mga AQUINO SUPPORTERS…mga negosyanteng magnanakaw…DAPAT PATAYIN!

    ang ERC dapat KASANGGA SA PANG AAPI NG MERALCO…pero mga INUTILE…yung dating HEAD NG ERC SI ALBANO yata…nagka CANCER…tulad ni Manolo Lopez magpa lechon ako pag NAMATAY NA ANG MGA WALANG KALULUWA NA MGA TAONG ITO..

  11. Our bill Feb was 3k+++ and March it was 9k plus we complained and recomputed the difference is only 9.00 where can we get assistance? They (MERALCO LAS PINAS ) told us that wala silang pakialam kung ano mga ginagamit basta bayaran dahil 9.00 lang naman grabe gahaman ng mga LOPEZ ano ba yang mga taxes napakadami kaia from base 4k almost 5k din total ng mga tax na charge samin

  12. I have two electric meters. My 1st meter’s rate increased by 4 pesos/kwh. Thats from P6/kwh (last month’s bill) to P10/kwh (latest bill). My 2nd meter’s rate increased by P2/kwh. That’s from P10/kwh to P12/kwh.

    How can ERC allow this? Di kaya sinuhula (bribed) ng Meralco mga executives ng ERC to approve this oppressive increase?

    To the presidentiables, what are you going to do about this?

  13. my electiricity budget was usually just 3k and under….now our bill had gone up to 5.7k! but that was the bill i paid for last 30th, so i’m kinda scared that it’ll double again after reading a lot of bloggers post about it now…could that 5k bill go up to 10k? i don’t want to think about it!

  14. Our Meralco Home bill has an average of 18k in the past months..but now it went up to 55k..we only use 4 AC units in 3 rooms and 1 AC unit in our living room. I have shares in Meralco but it doesn’t payoff that well.I think only the big stockholders earn good!The government should do something about this!

    my business electricity bill has an increase of 53.9% from it previous bill!

  15. I just recently moved to a house with a defective e-meter last february 21, take note, the house has never been resided by anyone before, being new. meralco replaced the defective e-meter march…then meralco returned with a billing amounting to staggering PhP 21,000!!!

    Put%$$#$#$@$@#$@! nanghula sila ng icha-charge na kW. Kahit iwan ng anak ko ang aircon 24 hours a day, hindi kami kukunsumo ng 1,608 kW sa isang buwan! grabe, MERALCO must explain this to me thoroughly!

  16. My income is just enough to support my modest lifestyle. Budgetting has always been something I am very conscious about because what i receive during paydays should be stretched up to the next payday. Needless to say, my electricity consumption is tightly monitored so as not to exceed the alotted budget. But now, with the crazy increase of Meralco charges, I am at a loss as to how else i can pay up the other bills and necessities! This should be front page news! The government should take a good look at this! Everything around us is getting costly! Increases are left and right! We suffer while this conscience less(if there is such a word) people get richer!

  17. Meralco,

    Mensahe para sa inyo..double ang lumabas na bill amount to normal monthly bill, kalokohan ito!!!Dapat pinag-isipan nyo ito maigi..sa tingin ninyo di kayo i-reklamo ng mga tao sa ginawa ninyo purket hawak ninyo ang buong metro manila sa pagsusupply ng kuryente. Eh mga garapal pala kyo eh..Di brown-out nyo ang metro manila..tingnan natin kung di kayo susugurin ng taong bayan dyan..Sino ba ang niloloko ninyo..irereklamo kayo at i-rereklamo..gumawa lang kayo ng sarili nyong problema..dadami at dadami ang mag comment dito hanggat sa magkagulo ang buong pilipinas..Kayo ang maging headline at ituturing mga tanga sa lipunan..

  18. just got our meralco bill today and we were so surprised that from 2,2++ and 222kwh consumption last month, it’s now 3,4++ @ 282kwh consumption! WTH?! to think we don’t have an AC unit, and we just got an lcd tv which has a lower power consumption than a crt tv…and i think all of our neighbors has the same problem…40-100% increase in their electric bill! now i’m dreading to see next month’s bill…ugh!

  19. My bill went up from 5k plus in march to 7k plus now in April….
    The sad thing about this is that all of the government officials are busy in the upcoming elections no one bothers to inquire about it

  20. My expected electricity bill is about 4-5k this month. But 8,000??!!! I told myself to only use AC once a week despite of the heat, with one ref and 2 TV’s. Lights are only used at night bec there are a lot of windows. The hell with this!!! My brother who is living in australia and their electricty is just about 10,000 – 15,000 converted to pesos. But that is 24/7 AC all over the house, with 4 TV’s two refrigirators also 24/7. And the thing is, they earn 20 more times than I am. My salary does not even go up while food supplies, electricity and gas goes up all the time. Everybody wants a good life, but it ain;t gonna be better when its going to be like this every year.

  21. our bill went up from 3.5+k to 6.5k. we manage to conserve electric as we can. hoping na bababa kahit papano yung bill namin.. we own a small computer shop. so kahit papano nkkaraos kami dun kami kumukuha ng income, supposed na mabbudget namin ngaun ung income,ect. eh nung biglang taas ung bill.. nawalan kami ng income dis month. so problem pa namin pano kami kukuha ng pambayad nitong ssunod na month na ito, WTH??dito rin kami nakuha ng pambayad namin sa kuryente. Hay sana naman po mabago na agad yan.

  22. my electric bill went up from 1,700 php to 5,500 php! this is totally insane. same parin naman mga appliances namin sa bahay and take note na wala kaming aircon nyan ha grabe ang pandaraya na to… from 200 somehing KWH to 411 KWH… yung nagrreading malamang ang ngdadaya nyan dinodoctor nlng yung reading… ang sama talaga ng loob ko wala lang talaga tayong magagawa monopoly eh…

  23. @kei yes i agree.. sana meron pang ibang electricity suplier sa bansa….. sobrang daya na ng meralco e, d na makatao…. grabe sila, kung gusto nila mabayaran ang utang nila, huwag nilang ipasa sa consumers nila… nakakaimbyerna talaga e, 10k lamang ang bayaran nmn noon naging 20k…. nakakainis na yun a…. kala nila madaling kunin ang pera? kung sila kaya ang nasa pusisyon naten? kung tayo kaya ang magpataw ng napalaking bayad sa pag consumo nila ng kuryente? yung mga kakandidaton presidente dyan AYUSIN NYO TO…. nang may mapala nmn kameng mga pilipino sa inyo.. hindi puro salita lng… dpat ginagawa din….

  24. we don’t have the april bill yet, pero last march bill i paid for 5500php na already. my regular bill is around 4T to 4,500php only..
    now I am worrying how much will i pay for? and it’s enrollment time pa naman for my two kids…

    And WTF? I was trying to connect to meralco’s website…why can’t i get through? mukhang umiiwas na muna sila sa mga reklamo nating mga consumers? alam kasi nila na maririndi sila sa mga katakot-takot na complains!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  25. Hi Guys, I agree and have my bill doubled also! Please check out this link. http://www.meralco.com.ph/Consumer/mybill/calculator.htm this is a calculator that will give you an idea of what your spending for individual appliances. Hey, lets be honest, this is only the beginning. It’s not the Philippines, it’s the world. Cheap utilities are a thing of the past. Don’t toss me off as someone that has money to burn. I’m as broke as you are but I do understand that utilities will go up and up from now on. First power, fuel and soon water. Unless alternative resources are found in time we’ll just keep paying more and more. Even if they find those alternatives cost won’t go down because the power brokers won’t make money with those alternatives. It’s the way of the world…….why do you think that these people pay so much for jobs that only pay one tenth of what they invested to get into office………..DUH!!!!

  26. i am so quite shock from the bill I recieved from Meralco.. yakkksss from 2k maximum, my bill now is 4K+, grabe sino ba naman di iinit angulo nyan. hayyysss… what is wrong with this company, why we had to suffer.. what so annoying is most that others are enjoying the free use of electricity (yung mga nagnanakaw na ewan ko ba at di mahuli-huli) and we who are honest are the one suffering t pay their bills!

    Pasensya na but minsan rin kasi kahit anong positive thoughts ang gusto mong ipasok sa isip mo, pag ganito naman lagi medyo nakakainis na rin.
    .-= joy´s last blog ..WHO IS YOUR PRESIDENT? Philippines Election Day =-.

  27. Just got my meralco bill today and i was shock coz my bill is now 5,018k, Last month it was only 3k+ and the month before that, my bill was just 2k+. I’ve noticed that every month my bill is getting high. Oh by the way, that bill is only for my room. 1 ac, 1 laptop, 1 tv and 2 bulb lights (which i barely use). Nagcomplain na ako sa meralco about my 2 previous bills pero wala ako napala. I was about to complain this new bill din sana but nung nabasa ko itong blog, hindi lang pala ako nag-iisa and useless lang magcomplain ulit.

    So, pano na? do we just need to prepare ourselves na mas mataas ang meralco bill na marereceive natin next month? hindi na ba magagawan ng paraan na mapababa ito? nakakapanghina naman..

  28. Looking into the details of the bills, MERALCO is the luckiest firm in the world. It passes all their liabilities to the consumers. Wala silang talo or risk, as in ordinary business. This is one kind in the world or a best candidate for believe it or not. I think people should now start questioning the ownership of the LOpezes on MERALCO. When Cory handed it back to the Lopezes in silver platter, the turn-over includes the people’s money Marcos used in vastly improving MERALCO. What should have been given back to Lopezes must only be the actual asset when Marcos bought it from them. The rest of the ownership should be retained by the government. May I call on Senator Enrile to explore this line, i remember he has already broached this matter years ago and he has the evidence to back this up. On the other hand, I hope Noynoy is not beholden to the Lopezes but uphold and protect the interest of the majority.

  29. Let me share you my experience with the kind of service from Meralco. It was during the aftermath of typhoon Basyang. Two days after the typhoon, the electricity in our village (Gatchalian Subdivision in Las Pinas) got restored except our house and 2 other houses infront of us. It was due to a busted post wire connected to our metering device. I called the Meralco call center and spoke first with AJ on July 15 at 10pm. Aj promised me that they will fix the problem in two to 4 hours. 2 hours after, I made a follow-up and I to talked with Cloe this time (July 16 at 12am) and Cloe said that the the linemen are around the Alabang Area and our neighborhood is next in line. So I went to work in Makati (I work at 1am) and then at around 6 AM, I made a follow up. I talked with Weng, JM and Michiko. They were not able to give me concrete details as to why our electrical connection is not yet fixed. They are all one and the same in telling me that our house is next. Well, what the hell. Our house was next in line since last night! In my conversation with Michicko, I started expressing my dissapointment. She told me that they have already informed the Alabang Operations regarding my concern. Since Michicko will not give me the phone number of their “Alabang Operations,” I asked her if I could to talk to their supervisor (Remel Magbalana) instead. She said yes. She placed me on hold for 15 minutes. She came back to me and said that the supervisor is currently busy engaging with another person on another line. I told her that I can wait. She placed me on hold again for 30 minutes. 3o freaking minutes. Tired of hearing the same recording over and over again, I dropped the call and called 631-1111 again. Now this time, I spoke with Christian Magbalana, who happens to be the brother of the supervisor. Now Christian wasn’t able to help me at all. I asked for the supervisor again, and Christian told me he is on break. What?!! Christian, unlike Michicko and the others, gave me an idea there are more than a hundred on the list around Alabang, Las Pinas and Paranaque area waiting for their electrical wirings restored. If they told me that last night, I shouldn’t have not made my hopes high. They should have said like “I’m sorry but it would take 15 to 24 hours to fix your electrical connection. Our linemen are loaded with more than a hundred houses that needs to be fixed.” I am really dissapointed with the Meralco operations knowing that my fishes are dying one by one. I have three fish ponds in the house. I have one hundred japanese kois. Some of them cost like 4,000 each. It’s disheartening to see them die one by one because of no airation or oxygen. Aside from that, my wife is pregnant. She is sick most of the time due to vomiting. It’s morning sickness as they say but she vomits the whole day. It’s a good indication that the baby inside her is growing but it is not wonderful to see her in pain in a house with no electricity. Meralco sucks! Not to mention that they charged us double with electricity these past 3 months.

  30. 3 weeks na yng poste walang ilaw at 3 weeks na din na hindi pinupuntahan o walang pakialam me naholdap na at na agawan ng celfon wla pa din ginagawa walang silbi ang report sa punyetang MERALCO malaki mga ulo nila kasi wala kang ibang choice kundi sila lang letse sila me karma din kayo

  31. Our house is located between a meralco post and a school.Ten years ago (im not really sure it is between 10 – 20) the school asked my parents if they can just pass their wire in our house because it will take time for them to build a good post for the connection of their electircity (let’s just say that they want a temporary electiricity) and my parents agreed to a temporary connection while the school is working on building their post but until now they havent build any post yet. Right now I got a family of my own got 2 years old twin daughters and I am still living here in our home.The small school had improved and got more buildings and facilities and the wire above our house couldnt supply the electicity to the school properly.The wire got broken a couple of times and live wire fell on our yard and it is moving like a snake that wants to bite anything it can reach but this wire doesnt have venom but it offers electrocution and instant death. The wire put some hole in our roof broke a bulb and put some burn marks on the walls but i dont really care much about the house, what I am really worried is that it almost fry my daughters cause they are playing just below where the wire is, thank god the lady who take care of them is fast enough to take them away before the wire fell. I filed a complaint to Meralco they said I need to get cooordinated with local officials and the school which I aslo did,I talked to our barangay officials in Bagbag II with the teacher in charge of the situation, the school said they already told about it to the Mayor of Rosario who is Mayor Nonong Ricrafrente….Monday morning I was accompanied by our Barangay Chairman, Chairman Lisama and the teacher in charge about the wire. Our Mayor said he will fix the problem and we head home. The municipal engineer visited me the following day and told me that they have no funds for the school’s new,safe and by the book post (it cost 200 thousand something) and they want me to sign a waiver instead. The waiver says that im giving the Meralco the rights to make the wire thicker and higher. It aslo gives them the right to do maintenance and repairs and anything they want without our consent. I didnt sign the waiver for me it is like the solutions they are offering to me would bring me another problem. What I want is the wire remove since it should not be there in the first place and build they’re on post. Is there any institution where can i go to so the school could get their new post? Should I go to a lawyer? What should I do? Dont give me advice like sign the waiver cause if i do that they will just do what they like to fix the problem even if it will be more dangerous for us and with that kind of waiver they wont be hold responsible for damage they can do.

  32. How did the meralco employee read the meter it is in the top of electrict post are they went up to the ladder and read? How come they went reading one day the next day the bill is already deleverd in the house im just wondering because it is not a joke to pay your bill that much.Thanks im just asking.

  33. How are the meralco empoyee read the meter it is in the top of an electrict post?Are they went up in the ladder to see the meter? How come one day they read the meter and the next day its already deleverd in the house. im just wondering because its not a joke to pay that much. Thanks.

  34. Our Meralco bill was p3,300? Ours was a residential appartment. We don’t have aircon and washing machine. We make our clothes wash and press at the laundry shop. My bother was the only one left in the house when we go to work and school. Our neighbors with address 801 803 and 807 have aircons. address 801 have laundry shop and sells merienda and sa malamig. address 803 have small sari sari store and sells burger and french fries and shakes. address 807 have a small eatery inside her house. could you investigate on the matter the soonest? thanks

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