"We uphold a policy of social equity balanced with the viability of the whole power industry. This has been a difficult balancing process and the ERC has been doing a commendable job," she said in a statement.
The President earlier appealed to the regulatory body to reconsider its decision granting the Lopez-owned power distributor the 12-centavo per kilowatt-hour rate increase based on the welfare of the power consumers balanced against the legitimate claims of Meralco.
"In the end, the national interest is served when we have stable public utilities delivering affordable services to the Filipino people," she said.
In a radio interview, her spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, cited the ERC for favorably responding to the clamor of the consumers about the soaring electricity rates.
He urged the utility firm to comply with the latest power-rate reduction for its four million electricity users in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. The ERC order came two weeks after the Supreme Court ordered Meralco to put on hold its plan to raise power rates by P0.12 per kilowatt hour starting Jan. 1.
The commission approved the provisional rate increase on Nov. 27 without a public hearing. Meralco earlier said the adjustment is necessary because it has not raised its distribution rates over the last 10 years.
ERC functions questioned
To balance the interest of consumers and utilities, the regulatory body must exercise its regulatory functions properly.
This was the advice of the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) amidst its controversial decision allowing Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to increase its rates by 12 centavos per kilowatt-hour without first conducting a public hearing.
To protect itself from being accused of throwing its lot with utilities, the ERC must regulate these utilities to protect consumers from any unreasonable, unnecessary and imprudent rate increases, Pete Ilagan, president of Nasecore said.
"The ERC should not act like it is a regular judicial court basing its decision on the consumers, evidence and arguments against the application/petition of the utility. Rather, in ensuring the viable operations of the utility as a regulator, it should investigate, study and analyze all expenses and investments of the applicant-utility if they are useful and used in the operations of the company and if these expenses are necessary, reasonable and prudent because all these will affect the utilities delivery of services and the rates that they charge their customers," Ilagan said.
"Residential customers comprising the bulk of Meralco customers should not be treated by ERC like it has the same resources that utilities have. The ERC should bear in mind that consumers do not have the resources to hire lawyers, accountants, finance people, economists, statisticians, and engineers to study the application of the utilities and, therefore, should not rely on consumers, arguments and evidence, and instead, rely on its own resources and powers as a regulator. This way, the consumers can look up to ERC for consumer protection."
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