Palace defends Meralco’s April power rate hike as ‘market-driven’

Malacañang on Wednesday defended the decision of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to increase its generation charge, saying the rate adjustment of 89 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh) is “based on market-driven pricing.”

Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. echoed Meralco’s statement that the primary reason for the rate increase was “the tight supply condition brought about by the outage of several large power plants, coupled with an increase in demand.”