By Ashley Erika O. Jose, Reporter
MANILA ELECTRIC Co. (Meralco) remains focused on lowering power rates and ensuring supply reliability, its chairman said on Thursday, amid continued scrutiny following the renewal of its franchise.
“We are very mindful of that. 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. It is in our interest to bring power rates down — we are looking for ways to do that,” Meralco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan said at the Giga Summit 2025: The Fusion of Power and Intelligence, an industry forum held on Thursday.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on April 11 signed into law the measure extending Meralco’s franchise for another 25 years. Its current franchise is set to expire in 2028.
With the extension, the company will have the authority to distribute power to Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, and select areas in Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, and Pampanga until 2053.
It has around eight million customers in 39 cities and 72 municipalities.
“Beyond the traditional role of business, of supplying goods and services for profit, we are stewards of the money entrusted to us; that’s the basic role of business — providing goods and services for profit,” Mr. Pangilinan said.
Mr. Pangilinan said the company is focusing on helping advance the country’s energy transition, including the Philippines’ ambition to include nuclear power in the country’s power mix.
“Let me focus on the nuclear situation, the thrust of Meralco in nuclear. We’ve had several visits abroad; we’re looking at viable modular nuclear energy, but that’s still some years away,” Mr. Pangilinan said.
Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla has also called on Meralco to ensure that it can fulfill its franchise obligations, noting that it is also responsible for the supply through its decisions on where to procure power.
“What Meralco chooses to contract also dictates what power supplies are left for all other distribution utilities, and electric cooperatives do not have the scale to backstop the construction of a large-generation facility,” Mr. Lotilla said during the same event.
Earlier this month, the Energy Department called on Meralco and Excellent Energy Resources Inc. (EERI), the operator of the 1,275-megawatt combined-cycle natural gas plant, for alleged undelivered capacity under their power supply agreement.
“Any delays in the implementation of a power supply agreement have results, not just within the Meralco franchise area, but particularly for the rest of Luzon. And in all this, as I’ve said, the question that we need to ask is, how can Meralco be the very best that it can be? It is a challenge that I impose on you, given that your performance affects the rest of the country,” Mr. Lotilla said
Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT, Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.
