15/07/2026
*Filipino consumers deserve affordable and stable electricity across the country not just in Metro Manila - LABAN KONSYUMER INC*
Laban Konsyumer, Inc. (LKI) today called on the government to also look into the plight of many Filipinos in the country living with expensive yet erratic power supply instead of focusing its efforts at the cost of electricity in Metro Manila.
Metro Manila, being serviced by Meralco, has experienced close to uninterrupted power supply ever since.
While billing concerns has been the center of debate recently, government should not turn a blind eye to more Filipinos that are experiencing costly yet unreliable electricity in the provinces.
LKI said millions of Filipinos aside from living with high electricity rates, billing concerns, unreliable power supply, and poor service quality for years—long before the high rates issues of MERALCO became the subject of national headlines.
LKI noted that the current discourse has become disproportionately centered on MERALCO, creating the false impression that electricity affordability is a problem unique to Metro Manila.
“The electricity crisis should never been confined to Metro Manila as many consumers in the provinces have suffered longer,” LKI Convenor Jorge Bandola said.
Bandola cited publicly available data that show the top five highest residential electricity rates in the country — that went as high as P24 per kWh in June— are experienced by consumers in Busuanga Island, Kalinga, Catanduanes, Camiguin, Oriental Mindoro, Southern Leyte, Lanao del Norte and Aurora. Some are off-grid areas where consumers also contend with less reliable electricity service.
“Lawmakers conveniently ignore the fact that more consumers are paying higher electricity rates outside of Metro Manila and it seem convenient to them to always look at MERALCO whenever electricity rates becomes the topic of debate,” Bandola questioned.
LKI is not arguing that MERALCO should be exempt from scrutiny. Instead, all distribution utilities and electric cooperatives, including MERALCO, must always be held accountable. Consumers deserve transparency and accountability regardless of who their provider is. But accountability must be applied consistently and not selectively.
Bandola lamented that consumers in areas served by electric cooperatives have long remained at the margins of the national conversation.
“Families in many provinces have quietly endured some of the country’s highest electricity rates. Many have also had to live with recurring brownouts, unstable power supply, billing concerns, metering complaints, and service issues that receive little to no attention. These are not new problems. The difference is that these consumers have largely been invisible in policy discussions,” he said.
LKI further warned against reducing a national issue into what appears to be a Metro Manila debate as he urged the government, especially lawmakers, to craft solutions for Filipino consumers, not just for the voices that reach their echo chambers. Congress does not legislate for one franchise area because every law and every amendment they put forth affect the entire nation.
“Are they saying that consumers in countless provinces just have to wait because they do not generate enough headlines and that their concerns matter less because they do not generate the same noise,” Bandola, who is also a Broadcast Journalist said.
LKI acknowledged the efforts of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to consistently explain the factors affecting electricity rates, and bringing all other consumers to the conversation and making the discussions — and hopefully the solutions — logical and inclusive.
“The ERC has repeatedly emphasized that the factors driving electricity prices affect consumers across the country. We hope that policymakers will approach the issue with the same national perspective,” Bandola said.
“The measure of our commitment to consumer welfare is not how loudly we speak for those in the Metro Manila, but whether we are equally willing to stand up for consumers in every province, every island, and every community,” he concluded.
