Power Trip

At around 1:00 a.m. today, I was online and multitasking -- reading some blogs, writing one and social networking -- when all of a sudden, a power failure occurred. There was a typhoon in the horizon and Metro Manila was under Public Storm Warning Signal # 1, so I wasn't surprised that such thing would happen.

With nothing to do, I prepared myself to hit the sack, but lo and behold, power was restored in a matter of minutes. This gave me a reason to resume my online to-dos, so I turned on my desktop PC and was able to tap on my keyboard and scroll with my mouse for some time before power went out again. But before I could leave my seat, the power came back, so I turned on my computer once more, only to stare at a blank monitor again after a few seconds (because I have no UPS) because this time, power failed me for good -- electricity wasn't restored for hours and I slept then woke up to a barrage of insect bites all over my body.

An electricity-less day/night doesn't bother me. Give me a cool weather, a good bed and a mosquito coil and I'll do just fine. What bugs me is the fact the Meralco, that no good, monopolizing, electricity distributor here in the NCR, can't do anything about this fluctuation of sorts, despite that fact that were paying good money for some decent customer service.

Yes, it isn't advisable to use appliances when there's a storm because of above mentioned scenario. But if you see that power is restored after a blackout, wouldn't you do the same? How are we supposed to know that power will go out again after it just came back?

In case the Meralco people haven't heard of it, the Philippines is situated in Asia, a continent we share with superpowers Japan and China, to name a few. And they (Meralco) are charging for the most expensive electricity in the entire continent. Throw a signal # 1 typhoon at the countries I mentioned and they're most likely capable of maintaining power or having some systems in place that would protect the properties of the people. It's the kind of thing you'd expect if you're being charged with Asia's most expensive electricity, won't you? But instead, we get power that twinkles like stars in the night, and probably rivals the kind of bulbs they use in brothels located in red light districts. That, and a supposed-to-be customer care hotline (16-211) which is more often than not busy, or a clueless telephone operator entertaining your call. Wow!

Because of these surges, and with a little help from our stubbornness, we bid adieu to some of our appliances. But while we're on our own in paying for the damage Meralco's service caused to our appliances, they demand us to pay for their non-technical losses, electricity lost through theft or pilferage and errors in meter reading and billing (see this link for more info), despite having an Anti-Pilferage Act passed in their favor. Plus, they have the gall to waste humungous amount of power on Christmas lights to keep their main office in Ortigas, Pasig shining brightly than others. Sounds unfair? Hell yeah!

The creeps working for the white "M" enclosed in an orange circle can throw in all the legal stuff they could think of to justify what they're doing, but their values, if they have any, are probably screaming "unethical" right now for such practice.

Why not give us our money's worth? You (Meralco) sure can't predict weather, but you can be proactive about it. You got two shareholders (Gabby Lopez and Manny Pangilinan) in the company owning major broadcasting stations. The least you can do is air some PSAs, broadcasted on their stations of course, advising people that power may become unstable because of extreme weather conditions, and that we should turn off/stop using electrical appliances, especially the sophisticated and expensive ones, until such time that the power supply stabilizes.

And while you're at it, just turn off the power altogether. Don't give us false hopes with power returning briefly, only to leave and come back after several hours. This also protects your technicians working on those wires or whatever contraptions are involved in getting some power to our houses. With no electricity running through electrical cables, it lessens their chance of being electrocuted.

Better yet, since we're paying you guys so much, why not just build some infrastructures that will grant us power even in the midst of a signal # 1 typhoon? And I only want one during signal # 1 because signal # 2 is an entirely different ball game.

With you guys monopolizing our power supply here in Metro Manila, you better do something to keep us happy. After all the customer is always right. Otherwise, cut down your own expenses and save us the trouble of paying for your overpriced services. If you're not cut out for the job, might as well let the independent players step up to the plate and show us what they've got. For all we know, they could even be better at half the price.