Senators want blackout probed

MANILA, Philippines — Senators are calling for an “extensive” inquiry into the massive blackout that affected businesses and households throughout Panay and Guimaras, while Ilocos Norte First District Rep. Sandro Marcos has filed a House resolution seeking to review the franchise of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) amid reports of inaction and lack of real-time information during the incident.

Senators Risa Hontiveros and Francis Tolentino filed yesterday Senate resolutions 890 and 894, respectively, to conduct “deeper and more extensive” investigation on the Panay blackout to address all factors surrounding the incident last Jan. 2.

“Considering that past investigations and probes have not yielded palpable results, an even more comprehensive, thorough and extensive examination needs to be conducted, including a review of the concession agreement between the National Transmission Corporation and the NGCP, as well as NGCP’s 25-year legislative franchise itself,” Hontiveros’ resolution stated.

“We must urgently review and strengthen the effectiveness of all protocols, such as Department of Energy’s mechanisms during incidents like simultaneous and unplanned power plant shutdowns. NGCP claims that its decision to take no action like manual load dropping during the blackout was according to ‘standard protocols.’ Is it really standard procedure to remain silent when there is a crisis such as a blackout?” she said.

Like Hontiveros, Tolentino is urging the Senate committee on energy to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation on the continuous blackouts in Iloilo, as he called on the DOE and the NGCP to find a more sustainable solution to the energy supply in the region.

In his resolution, Tolentino recalled that on Feb. 20, 2023, five provinces in Western Visayas – Guimaras, Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Iloilo – experienced a “system disturbance” that affected the entire Panay sub-grid.

He added that the same power outages were experienced by the provinces last April 2023, which was caused by the tripping of the NGCP transmission lines due to overvoltage and high system frequency.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said after the meetings with the DOE and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), solutions to the power outage were identified to include crucial transmission projects, but which have not been completed and the problems still prevail.

Franchise review

In the House of Representatives, Ilocos Norte Congressman Marcos has filed House Resolution 1534 that seeks to investigate the cause of massive blackout and review the franchise of NGCP.

“There is a compelling need for Congress to conduct an investigation with the end in view of revisiting and reviewing the franchise of the NGCP,” he wrote in his two-page resolution filed last Jan. 5.

“The review should include the possible separation and transfer of the systems operation function from the NGCP to another entity which could carry out such function more efficiently,” he suggested.

At the same time, Rep. LRay Villafuerte proposed the revocation of the NGCP’s transmission franchise after it repeatedly refused to own up to the sudden blackout.

“Modifying or cancelling its franchise seems the best course of action, given that the NGCP has refused to accept responsibility for the power cutoff even as President Marcos, plus energy regulators, have directly blamed our sole transmission operator for the system collapse,” he said.

He added that the attitude of NGCP in the Panay case shows it “is not likely to take urgent corrective measures to prevent a repeat of the blackout, considering that it sees itself as faultless on this latest fiasco.”

For his part, Sta. Rosa, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez said the House will look into NGCP’s failure to refund P70 billion in overcharged operation services. “Approximately P70 billion will have to be refunded by the NGCP to consumers for various instances of overcharging of its services as power grid operator,” he warned.

“NGCP, the country’s power grid operator that is partially owned by Chinese corporations, must present a plausible justification as to why it should not be tasked to return over P70 billion it pocketed by overcharging Filipinos for its services in years,” he stressed.

He revealed that the current management of the ERC under Chairp Monalisa Dimalanta has already ascertained that NGCP over-collected P35 billion during the term of her predecessor, Agnes Devanadera.

The legislator is optimistic that another P35 billion will have to be refunded by the NGCP to consumers in connection with the disallowance of various operational expenditures the firm collected.

The ERC rejected items such as advertising, corporate social responsibility program allocations and donations among the expenditures that NGCP is entitled to refund as part of operational costs.

Meantime, MORE Electric and Power Corp. president and CEO Roel Castro dismissed the allegations made by ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro regarding the need for the company to be held accountable for the widespread blackout in Panay Island.

“It’s difficult to address the statement of Rep. Castro. In fairness and with respect to the congresswoman, she doesn’t understand the whole system, and it’s difficult to respond if their basis is wrong. It was just an accusation without basis,” Castro, who is unrelated to the lawmaker, said.

He explained that while it’s unavoidable for there to be some disturbances or problems in the system, the collapse and subsequent total blackout could have been avoided if NGCP had taken immediate action.

Reassume control

Labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) urged the government anew to reassume control of the national grid and opposed proposed state investment in NGCP through the Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC).

“We have consistently opposed the creation of MIC, and witnessing public funds being diverted to support an unsound investment proposal only strengthens our opposition,” PM said in a statement, as it expressed that the real issue facing NGCP is performance, not a lack of cash.

PM called on the government to take back the national grid operations, which was considered a “crown jewel” among government-owned and controlled corporations, generating an annual net income of at least P20 billion before privatization. — Delon Porcalla, Mayen Jaymalin