By 
MANILA — Out of 4 million possible applicants, only 37,000 have enrolled in the lifeline subsidy program of various electric cooperatives and utilities in the Philippines.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Department of Energy (DOE), and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) have targeted around 4 million members of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and marginalized sectors to join the program that will entitle them to discounts in their electricity bill.
For Meralco, the discount ranges from 20 to 100 percent depending on how much electricity a household consumes.
To qualify, a household must be a member of the 4Ps and its power consumption must not exceed 100kwh.
For Meralco, there were only over 10,000 applicants, and 7,000 of them have been approved already.
Meralco said the power distributor is doing everything to encourage more customers to sign up before the untagging begins by the end of August.
The untagging will result in higher electricity bills for the affected customers.
ERC PHASING PLAN
ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta says the DOE and ERC plan to implement the untagging in phases because of the low registration rate.
Dimalanta says she will ask the DSWD if it’s possible to start the program in areas with more registrants.
FIT-ALL INDEFINITELY SUSPENDED
Meanwhile, the energy regulatory commission has indefinitely suspended the resumption of the Feed-in Tariff Allowance or FIT-All charge to all consumers nationwide.
That translates to a savings of almost P0.04/kwh in the electricity bill of all consumers.
The FIT-All is a charge collected from all consumers and paid to renewable sources of energy.
Dimalanta says the fund is still healthy and can sustain payments to renewable energy developers in the next months.