Amid Chinese ‘threat,’ senators warn NGCP to allow audit or face franchise revocation
MANILA, Philippines — Senators on Monday warned the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to submit itself to an audit or risk having its franchise revoked amid fears that China has access to the Philippines’ power grid.
China, through state-run State Grid Corporation, owns 40% of the Philippines' national grid since 2009, prompting lawmakers to call for a probe into NGCP’s operations due to concerns that Beijing could turn off power in the Southeast Asian country in the event of a conflict.
Despite warmer ties with China under the Duterte administration, the Philippines has a long mistrust of it as the two nations continue to spar over the resource-rich waters of the South China Sea, parts of which is the West Philippine Sea.
Speaking to reporters, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, said he will personally move for the termination of NGCP’s franchise if China is found to have influence over the Philippines’ public utility.
“Kapag napatunayan na may violations, lalo na sa Constitution natin, pwede natin i-revoke ang kanilang franchise,” Gatchalian said.
“This is a privilege for them to operate meaning any privilege there are mandates they have to follow,” he added.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros said that since 2009, NGCP has not been subjected to any external audit and that the corporation has barred inspections, even by government agencies, of their operations.
"They (State Grid Corp.) are bound by Chinese laws to gather intelligence and report to the Chinese government. Now, paano tayo secured sa ganitong set-up?” Hontiveros told the Senate panel.
Separately, Sen. Richard Gordon grilled NGCP on the use of a remote monitoring and control structure located in China in running the country’s power grid.
The system enables the Chinese engineers to troubleshoot, operate and control the NGCP's power transmission network, Gordon pointed out.
“I would be uncomfortable allowing a foreigner to have a connection here. The principal objective is to protect the country on a situation where we will be totally dependent or we do not have control," he added.
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi earlier said he was renewing his proposal to conduct an audit on the transmission lines of NGCP.
“I have already directed TransCo (National Transmission Corp.) to write NGCP regarding this matter. After all, they already stated they are now willing to open their systems to the government,” Cusi said.
The Department of Energy has also been pushing for the withdrawal of systems operations functions from NGCP, saying a private company or private individual should not be given control over the transmission grid network, considered as the most critical infrastructure system of the state because of its capability to transmit power and digital data.
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