MERALCO INCREASE: SHOWING THAT THE GOV’T CARES

ISSUE MERALCO is going to implement a whopping 36% increase starting on November. Why? They said it is a pretty hard decision, but because of the continuous drastic fluctuations of foreign exchange and since they want to SERVE the consumers better, this is the best solution for them.
And so as to lessen the impact to the less privileged people in our society, the government approved a refund of around 3.1 billion pesos due to overpayment in June 2003 to December 2006.

To view the whole story, click this URL: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20081021/tbs-meralco-7318940.html

PROBLEM

I really don’t see a problem if they wanted to SERVE the community better by offering BETTER service.

However, I just wanted to point out that WHY IS IT THAT THERE ARE OVERPAYMENTS? Well, it is not an issue anymore that the government of our country is one of the most incompetent and abusively corrupt. Obviously, they wanted the public’s money for personal gain, right?

But how, they mentioned that they are going to return the overpayments? Well, as I remember I am not only keen to Marketing stuffs, but I am a finance person as well. And based on the data this is how it works.

HOW THIS BECOMES A PROBLEM

They give you back your for all your payments, right? Let us say, your excess payment is 10,000 pesos. You go home happy, cheering and dancing saying that the government did something for you.

But hell, did you take into consideration when did you pay those? It was back in the year 2003 to 2006. The value of money today is different from the money you spent yesterday due to external factors such as inflation. It means that that the difference of the value of money today and money of yesterday is the amount of money used by the government for their ill-minded personal agenda.

And sure, they advertise this through the newspaper and through the Internet. However, our society is composed of poor and extremely poor people. Surely, they don’t have money to spend for accessing media stuffs. This means how the hell will they know about this refund thingie?  

Furthermore, how about those who do not have time to acquire their refund? Please take note that when you go to MERALCO centers, it takes a lot of time to pay and most likely to get a refund. It will be a hassle.

MY REACTION

So with these factors, are you sure that all of that 3.1 Billion pesos overpayment will be returned to the public? Is it worth to get those refund if it is going to be a hassle? Is this an effective way to SERVE the PUBLIC? HELL NO. Of course, there will be another excess and our government officials will gain from that fund. On the other hand, our country will be burdened by the additional loan, and we, the innocent citizens, will have the burden paying higher taxes.

If you are going to ask me what is the solution for this. Well here are my thoughts.

1. MERALCO should be after us, not we after them. Since they are the ones who created the problem, they should be responsible enough to distribute them to us by whatever means. Also the payment should have a percentage of interest since it is way back 2003-2006
2. I remember the line saying that “The Best Medicine is to Prevent Illness”. Incorporating this to the issue, I HOPE MERALCO will avoid implementing excessive bill payments to avoid refunds.

I just wanted to stress out that I hate politics and I degrade my dignity and humanity by being a politician. But, I am voicing out my opinions to create an awareness that I am not fooled by the government.