[Tonchi]

Yes, the electricity supplier.

They are a most unusual bunch, a perfect example of life in the Philippines at the mercy of a government burocracy. The low percentage of paying customers have to shoulder the expenses of the entire system, the rates go up BECAUSE you paid and most people don't. Meralco is unable to disconnect non-payers or remove the hundreds of thousands of illegal taps on their poles because the police can't be there to protect them from the mobs of squatters, their transformers are constantly exploding (probably also caused by overloaded tappings) and causing fires, they often just make up the amount to bill you and you have to pay it anyway, and if you make a service call to remove the taps which others have put on your line they often "discover" that your entire house has dangerous wiring and will probably burn down any minute if you do not pay them to "correct" it. During certain times of the year, the linemen go around threatening subscribers in order to get cash for themselves; fortunately, Luisa's aunt is even more scary than the attempted extortionists so she has managed to get rid of them so far. Because squatters build huts right in the middle of the street and because any empty space may suddenly sprout a cinderblock and wood building with stolen electricity, the utility can't possibly estimate power requirements and so power failures are commonplace. The so-called government of the Philippines never makes any attempt to control the destruction and squallor which these squatters and criminals cause because every single body in that place can vote (or rather, sell their vote) so all the "laws" are for the benefit of the lowest common denominator and not the people who are trying to lead honest and legal lives.