August 13th, 2024
I thank Chairman Gus Tambunting for his fair and extensive evaluation of the proposed extension of the MERALCO franchise. The franchise is possibly the single most important private bill for industrial policy in this country. MERALCO services an area responsible for about half the country’s entire GDP, and about 26 percent of the population.
MERALCO is an exemplar of how service reliability can create economic growth and development.
Using estimates from the PSA IO tables and data from the ERC on outages due to power supply by DUs, the country would gain a net GVA of P204.29 billion every year if all its ECDUs performed like Meralco.
This is the fruit of some P220 billion MERALCO invested in reducing systems losses and system interruptions.
MERALCO has also fully complied with the ERC’s rules and issuances. Some P48.3 billion in consumer refunds have also been delivered in full.
I expect the franchise bill to sail smoothly through the floor. The role of the franchise review process in Congress is to see whether a grantee has complied with its mandates. In this regard, there can be little question. MERALCO has fulfilled its end of the current franchise law.