A consumer advocates’ group has called on the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to respond to its calls for an audit and disclosure of consumer-funded investments of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
In a follow-up letter dated November 27, Pete Ilagan, president of the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore), urged ERC to act on its November 17 letter requesting for a joint audit by the ERC and the Commission on Audit (COA) to reconcile the P112 billion in long-term investments identified in Meralco’s audited financial statements from 2012 to 2019.
Ilagan said that Nasecore had discovered in its own investigation that Meralco’s long-term investments had risen from P64 billion in 2019 to P92 billion in 2024.
However, there was no disclosure or mechanism to determine how much of these investments were financed by “consumer-derived” funds such as consumer deposits and accumulated refundable kilowatt-hour deposits.
Citing the findings of former ERC Commissioner Alfredo Non, Ilagan alleged that Meralco has accumulated “tens in billions” in consumer-derived cash that were never refunded and may have been used instead to finance its investments.
“Unless fully audited, consumers risk losing refunds while Meralco gains windfall financial advantage,” the Nasecore convenor said in the letter.
Ilagan called on ERC to uphold its mandate and protect consumers from “unjust and unreasonable charges” by directing Meralco to submit a year-by-year investment flow schedule from 2012 to 2024, which would detail the exact funds of sources for its investments.
Alongside the proposed audit, he stressed that ERC should also submit an annual consumer-funded cash flow statement so that consumer funds cannot be passed off as corporate equity or used to justify rate increases.
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