The electricity may disappear, but the bill never does.
For consumers in Eastern Visayas, that has become an increasingly infuriating reality.
Power interruptions recur, supply remains constrained, and yet electricity rates continue to demand more from households and businesses already struggling with rising costs.
The question is no longer simply why the lights go out.
The bigger question is: why are consumers paying more for less?
An electricity system that cannot consistently deliver adequate power is already failing one of its most basic obligations.
When that failure is accompanied by high electricity costs, consumers are effectively being asked to shoulder the burden twice. First through their monthly bills, and again through the losses and inconvenience caused by unreliable service.
A brownout is not free.
For a small business, it can mean a day of lost sales. For manufacturers, interrupted production.
For restaurants and stores, spoiled goods.
For students and workers, lost hours.
For ordinary families, another night without fans, appliances or dependable internet.
And yet, the consumer remains the easiest party to charge.
There is something fundamentally unfair about a system where payment is certain but service is conditional.
Generation shortages may have technical explanations.
Grid limitations may have legitimate causes.
But explanations cannot become permanent excuses. A recurring crisis eventually becomes a failure of planning, investment and accountability.
Eastern Visayas cannot build a stronger economy on an unstable power supply.
Industries will hesitate to invest.
Businesses will struggle to expand. Households will continue absorbing costs they can least afford.
Consumers deserve more than explanations after every blackout.
They deserve a power system capable of meeting demand and rates that reflect a service that actually works.
Because electricity is not a luxury.
If consumers are expected to pay more, they have every right to demand more power, more reliability and, above all, more accountability.