Belmonte pins blame over power rate hike on Meralco, power plants; Ducut faces ouster complaint

The blame over the P4.15 per kilowatt hour Manila Electric Company (Meralco) rate hike is on Meralco and the power plants which went on maintenance shutdown coinciding with the Malampaya natural gas plant outage, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. of Quezon City said Thursday.

Belmonte made the stance a day after Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla told the House Committee on Energy that the year 2013 had enough power supply but Meralco sought for a P4.15 per kilowatt hour power rate—eclipsing its P2.00 per kilowatt hour rate increase in 2010 when there was power shortage.