As power crisis grips Panay, Romualdez says NGCP needs help of Maharlika 

MANILA, Philippines — After power outages hit swaths of Western Visayas, House Speaker Martin Romualdez has proposed to park Maharlika funds into the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to prevent future blackouts and improve their operations.

Romualdez said on Friday that potential investments made by the Maharlika Investment Corporation — the governing body of the Marcos administration’s pet project — could help bankroll improvements to the power grid’s infrastructure and lead to “improved efficiency.”

Households and businesses in Panay Island were plunged into darkness right after the New Year festivities on January 2. Private firm NGCP — which is responsible for operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s state-owned power grid — attributed the outage to the tripping of multiple power plants, with the entire Negros-Panay grid eventually shutting down.

The NGCP has since taken the heat from lawmakers for the region-wide blackout, with Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate public services committee, criticizing the grid for preventing a repeat of the April 2023 power outage that cut off households’ electricity amid the summer heat.

Philstar.com has reached out to the NGCP for comment and will update this story with their response.

The government of Iloilo City, which is in Panay Island, said on Thursday that the economic losses caused by the three-day power outage have been estimated at P1.5 billion. In all of Panay Island, at least 733 public schools have suspended classes due to the blackout.

Following the power outage, the NGCP said in a statement that there is a “need for improved planning to ensure sufficient generation per island, with a well-balanced mix of fuels and technology.”

Romualdez, who hails from Visayas, said that the Maharlika Investment Fund could provide the NGCP with “essential capital for infrastructure upgrades and help in lowering the cost of electricity for consumers.

“The involvement of the Maharlika Investment Corporation could be a significant step towards achieving a reliable, efficient, and sustainable energy infrastructure,” the House speaker added.

Romualdez also called on the NGCP and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to investigate the cause of the outage and address its root cause to ensure a stable power supply.

In July 2023, the ERC ordered the NGCP to explain the delays in some 37 electrification and power transmission projects across the country, with timelines being delayed by around 21 days to more than 2,500 days.

The NGCP’s response cited right-of-way issues and the COVID pandemic as the factors that caused project delays.

However, the power grid said that "access to funding was never a problem" but instead pointed to obstacles posed by external limitations, including regulatory caps on capital expenditures, protracted permitting processes and difficult rights of-way procurement, among others.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri — who said he was “incensed and dismayed by the persistent power outages” and said the situation was “no longer tolerable” — earlier suggested parking Maharlika money into the NGCP last year right after the fund was signed into law.

The Maharlika Investment Corporation held its first board meeting on Wednesday to discuss its fund capitalization and identify the potential sectors it can tap to achieve value creation. Among others, it cited the sectors of infrastructure; oil, gas, and power; agroforestry industrial urbanization and mineral processing.

— with reports by The STAR / Richmond Mercurio