Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla on Thursday asked Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power retailer, to do the best it can to bring down the power rates in its franchise area.
“Despite its size and sourcing, [with] nearly half of its power coming from its affiliates, Meralco does not have the cheapest power rates when compared with other DUs [distribution utilities] and ECs [electric cooperatives],” Lotilla said during the first day of the Giga Summit 2025 organized by Meralco Power Academy.
Lotilla, however, lauded Meralco for its role in economic development and its technological capabilities in disaster response and diversification of sources of energy, including renewable energy.
The energy chief said a utility’s performance is measured in its ability to deliver the most affordable power rates to consumers.
“This is a continuing conversation between government policy makers and regulators and Meralco, and we ought to examine with rigor the trade-offs between consolidation and competition, and whether these benefits as we speak of are realized,” he said.
Meralco, for its part, committed to studying how to bring down its distribution rates.
“I hope we are able to bring down power prices at least on the distribution side. We don’t make money on the generation side, but we get the brunt of the criticisms. And it is our interest to bring power rates down. We are looking for ways to do that, and it starts at the fuel, right?” Pangilinan said.
He said First Pacific Group’s focus beyond the traditional role of business of supplying goods and services for profit is to ensure that the people are better off.
“But beyond that, the ultimate test of our contribution and efficiency as a business is this question: have we left our people better off? From the things we’ve done, to our activities, what we do. If we have not done that, then we haven’t done our job as a business,” Pangilinan said.
“The social aspects of our businesses are very important to us. We love our people and we love our country. It is very central to what we do that we do not harm our people with the activities we do,” he said.
