Is the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) afraid of losing its tight grip on the lucrative energy industry?
As temperatures soar once again to record highs and consumers feel the impact of runaway inflation, those who can afford it are now switching to solar panels as a cheaper, more sustainable energy source.
Despite the prohibitive initial costs of installing a household solar-energy system (from P100,000 to P250,000), more and more households are now adopting them due to the high savings generated from going off the grid.
Some consumers reportedly boast of having saved as much as P6,000 a month in electricity costs due to the new technology.
That must've set off alarm bells at Meralco, who currently holds the monopoly of power distribution in Mega Manila and has now also entered the power generation sector.
All of a sudden, Meralco called for the national government to "regulate" what it called a "guerilla" soar-energy sector, citing potential risks to consumers.
Potential risks to consumers, or to Meralco's sparkling profits which have reportedly reached P11.426 billion for the first three months of 2026 alone?
Let's face it: what consumers installing solar panels are after is not just savings, but independence.
Independence from fossil-fueled power sources, independence from uncertainties in the power supply brought by the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, independence from blackouts and spaghetti wires which, let’s face it, poses a greater risk to the public than “guerilla” solar-panel installations.
Not to mention independence from hidden charges that Meralco, in connivance with government officials, have managed to pass off to their consumers (and they have the gall to call these additional charges acceptable from a legal point of view!).
Like any king who has been on the throne for far too long, Meralco clearly sees solar power as the newest threat to its decades-long dominance over Mega Manila’s electricity sector and is now raising hell.
Do they mean “regulate” as in set safety standards to ensure the safety of consumers, or “regulate” as in cut off or kill consumers’ best chances of escaping from their grip?
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