A top official of National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) assured Thursday that China’s significant stake in the local power transmission firm does not pose a national security threat to the Philippines.
In an interview, NGCP board of director Francis Chua said “less than one dozen” Chinese nationals are personally involved in the day-to-day operations of the transmission service provider.
He was referring to employees of the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), a Chinese state-owned entity that owns 40 percent of the NGCP.
Chua explained that the NGCP mostly relies on its China-trained Filipino personnel to run the power grid, whose scope of operations span across the Philippines.
He noted that while the firm’s Filipino employees “received very good training in China” the local power grid still relies heavily on Chinese technology.
“If they were to go [Chinese NGCP stakeholders], what would happen if something broke down? Nobody knows what would happen [without Chinese technical expertise],” he argued.
Chua, also chairman emeritus at the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), noted that many countries rely on Chinese technical expertise to operate their power grids.
“Almost in the whole world, they [Chinese] are operating the electricity grids. It’s not just here [in the Philippines],” he added.
On Wednesday, Senator Risa Hontiveros expressed concern over Chinese nationals exercising leadership and management roles in the country’s power grid, amid concerns about foreign control of the country’s electric power system.
She expressed doubt that the Chinese participation in NGCP’s operations is limited to advisory roles.
NGCP is the only transmission business in the country, with more than 21,000 circuit kilometers of lines, 20,000 transmission towers, and 140 substations, which transmit electricity from power plants to consumers.
Meanwhile, Chinese state-owned SGCC is touted as the world’s third largest company overall by revenue.
It is directly overseen by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, which, in turn, answers to the Chinese Communist Party.
