I just got my electric bill and I am now wishing for the annihilation of all power oligarchs in the Philippines! At the end of the day, the way the country’s power system is built, it’s really looking out for the energy companies first—not the people paying the bills. You’ve got a small handful of big private players running the show, locked into long-term deals that basically guarantee they’ll get their money back plus a nice, steady profit. They don’t have to sweat the way most businesses do when things go sideways.
These deals—Power Supply Agreements, or PSAs—are where the real story hides. They lock in prices for years, sometimes decades, and they often come with clauses that pay the companies even if the electricity isn’t fully used. On top of that, prices automatically move with fuel costs or foreign exchange rates. So whether demand drops or the economy wobbles, their income stays mostly safe.
But when costs go up? That doesn’t stick with the companies. It slides straight onto our plate. If global fuel prices jump or the peso takes a hit, we see it in our electric bill almost right away. Even inefficiencies or shady contract terms just trickle downhill. The system is basically wired so that we, the public, absorbs all the bumps by default.
That’s what makes this different from almost any other industry. Normally, companies take risks; they eat the losses when things go wrong. Here, they push that burden outward. Profits stay in-house, while the risks; from market chaos to simple bad planning; get carried by millions of regular consumers. And with so little competition, that cycle just keeps spinning.
So when people say power oligarchs lord it over the rest of us, it’s not always about blatant scams or secret tricks. It’s just that the whole system is shaped to float their boat. Sure, it keeps investment coming (so they say) and the lights on—but it does that by turning ordinary people, like me, into the sector’s shock absorbers, carrying all the downside while the upside stays tucked safely away.