PSIREN

Until recently, the Manila Electric Corp (Meralco) – the largest private electricity distributor in the Philippines – used to be solely controlled by the Lopez family. Meralco now has a new set of owners, the food conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and the telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT). In October 2008, SMC bought the entire 27% stake of Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) in Meralco at P90 per share or a total of P26 billion, a move that is expected to enhance SMC’s profitability.

In May 2009, Visayan Electric Company Employees Union (VECEU) filed a strike notice against the VECO management at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board for unfair labor practice in implementing unilateral decisions without consulting the union, and the proliferation of “labor-only contracting” in which workers are performing work which would otherwise be the job of regular employees (e.g. billing and electric line posting, and maintenance), and thus resulting in the loss of union membership.

August 2009 – Similar to prepaid mobile-phone communication, households soon will be able to choose either to maintain their postpaid electricity accounts or switch to prepaid accounts to be offered by distribution utilities (DUs). This, as the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) recently approved the rules for Prepaid Retail Electricity Service (PRES) using a prepaid metering system, which shall take effect 15 days after publication in a newspaper of general circulation.