China: Grid control claims ‘groundless’
Credit to Author: Jordeene B. Lagare| Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2019 17:02:59 +0000
THE Chinese government has dismissed claims it can control the Philippines’ power transmission grid as baseless amid Filipinos’ growing distrust of Beijing.
This comes as the Department of Energy (DoE) expressed support for a planned Senate inquiry on the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines’ (NGCP) daily operations, prompted by national security concerns raised by some lawmakers.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said “[t]he allegation of China’s control over the Philippines’ power grid or threat to the country’s national security is completely groundless.”
“We hope certain individuals in the Philippines will look at cooperation with China in an open, objective and impartial manner,” he added.
Beijing’s role in the country’s grid operator is limited to providing technical support, according to the official.
“To my knowledge, the State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) took part in the TransCo (National Transmission Corp.) project as a cooperation partner, providing safe, efficient and high-quality electricity services,” Shuang said.
“The project is now operated, managed and maintained by the Philippine side, with the Chinese partner offering necessary technical support upon request,” he added.
TransCo owns the power grid, while the NGCP — the consortium of Henry Sy Jr.’s Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp., Robert Coyiuto Jr.’s Calaca High Power Corp. and SGCC — operates it.
The spokesman’s remarks come more than a week after the results of a Social Weather Stations survey showed that Filipinos’ trust in the East Asian country slid from “poor to bad.”
The poll conducted from September 27 to 30 found that 54 percent of Filipinos said they had “little trust” in China, while 21 percent said they had “much trust.”
This yielded a net trust score (much trust minus little trust) of “bad” -33 for China, 9 points down from the “poor” -24 in June.
‘Actively take part’
In a statement on Thursday, the DoE said that, together with TransCo, it would “actively take part in the Senate inquiries that will be scrutinizing these issues.”
“Given that there are aspects in the existing franchise agreement with the NGCP that seem inimical to the best interests of the national government, and more importantly, the Filipino people, both the DoE and TransCo continue to call for, and are fully supportive of the Senate’s interest to take a closer look at the administrative, operational, and procedural structures existing within the NGCP,” it added.
According to the Energy department, it considers this probe a “positive development toward the long overdue and much-needed audit of [the] NGCP” as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to review all government contracts that appear to be onerous.
This move would pave the way for all necessary amendments to uphold the national security and welfare of the Filipino people, it said.
The DoE statement comes after the NGCP assured the public that China was incapable of taking over the grid. It emphasized that the SGCC only had a 40-percent stake in the operator, compared to the combined 60-percent stake of its Filipino partners.
Earlier, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian filed Senate Resolution 219 directing the Senate energy committee, which he heads, to scrutinize the NGCP’s compliance with its mandate to safeguard the grid and ensure uninterrupted power supply in the country.
Gatchalian also called on the Joint Congressional Energy Commission, the country’s main power-sector watchdog, to look into the operations of the country’s power transmission line to verify whether Filipinos are in charge of its day-to-day management amid national security concerns.
“There is a need to verify whether Filipinos are actually in charge of the day-to-day management of the grid as mandated by the constitution despite the TransCo and DoE’s manifestations during the 2020 budget deliberations that all executive officers of [the] NGCP are Filipinos,” he said at that time.
WITH A REPORT FROM CATHERINE S. VALENTE