Array
The national security concerns bundled with the State Grid Corporation of China’s (SGCC) 40-percent stake in the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) have long been a concern of lawmakers.
But the sole operator of the country’s power grid on Wednesday maintained that this is not an issue.
During the Senate energy panel’s inquiry into the country’s power woes, Senator Raffy Tulfo asked NGCP Assistant Corporate Secretary Ronald Concepcion if the NGCP being partly owned by a Chinese state-owned electric utility corporation poses a national security threat.
Tulfo cited intelligence reports his office had received, claiming that the SGCC has remote access to the country’s power transmission system.
“That’s not correct because, in the first place, as I said, only Filipinos are manning the (NGCP) substations,” Concepcion said.
Unsatisfied with the answer, Tulfo asked the NGCP official how certain he was of his claim.
Senator Risa Hontiveros further argued that Concepcion’s claim is not easy to make.
“It’s not easy to say that when a foreign country’s state-owned enterprise has the obligation to collect information and intelligence reports about our country and government and give it to their government. Beijing, in particular, is a country that is far from being our friend, especially with the way they treat us in the West Philippine Sea,” she said in Filipino.
The Philippines’ ties with Asian giant China have soured over the decades due to tensions in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims nearly all of the South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea–waters within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.
In 2019, security concerns about Chinese ownership of the NGCP were already raised in the Senate.
