Rep. JV Ejercito slams Meralco, urges government to take stand

Representative Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito (Lone District, San Juan City) slammed recent Meralco’s rate increase as grave abusive at the expense of the Filipino people.

“Both the Independent Power Producers and the Manila Electric Company still probably think they are businesses with consistent profits being guaranteed by the national government. IPPs and Meralco already had their heyday during the Arroyo administration with their overcharging and unreasonable rate hikes. This increase under the new Aquino government is too much and considered exploitation to the people,” Ejercito said.

With this, the San Juan City representative called on to the Aquino government to come up with a firm stand on protecting consumers from the power distributor’s recurrent abuse.

“Unlike the time of President Estrada, he never allowed any water and electricity rates to go up because he does not want the people to suffer the burden. President Aquino, we hope, would to the same for the Filipinos, especially for the poor," Ejercito said.

“We therefore CHALLENGE the Aquino administration to stand up in preventing unjustifiable and excessive rate hikes being imposed by the same group of people who have heydays during the Arroyo government and perpetuated themselves in the new administration in the guise of campaign supporters,” he added.

Likewise, Ejercito said that the government should focus their attention more on public matters as important as this issue rather than wangwangs and traffic.

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