Retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio last month cautioned against the dangers brought about by China’s ability to control the Philippines’s power source through the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP). He said: “I think it should be a cause for concern especially if the technicians who are manning or maintaining the grid, the power lines, are Chinese. Because if the Chinese are the ones maintaining our national grid then it’s easy for them to shut it down. They can always inject malware in the software.”
Following Carpio’s declaration that the matter was something the government should look into, opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros asked the Senate to conduct an inquiry into the potential threat of China shutting off the country’s electricity supply. Hontiveros, the sponsor of the resolution calling for a Senate inquiry, alleged there are reports that Chinese engineers are operating the grid and that the Philippine government, which owns the facilities, no longer has access to them.
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi’s pronouncement that he supports calls to investigate the NGCP deal also signaled a push back against China’s alleged control over the national grid. He said that while the Chinese firm has the “potential” to shut down the Philippine grid, “measures are in place” to prevent it from doing so. Why is NGCP’s 11-year-old partnership with a Chinese firm suddenly become an alarming national concern? How did NGCP become a Filipino-Chinese consortium?
The NGCP is crucial to the Philippines’s power supply because it is the country’s sole transmission service provider. This means it is in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s power grid where electricity flows from generating plants to distribution utilities to businesses and households nationwide. China, through the State Grid Corp. of China, owns 40 percent of NGCP. But it is important to point out that SGCC as NGCP partner won the franchise to operate, maintain, and develop the country’s power grid in 2008 under former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The Duterte administration has nothing to do with the deal.
The NGCP denied allegations that China can remotely access and shut down the grid. It said Filipinos are in control of the country’s power transmission infrastructure, and the SGCC is limited to being a technical adviser. NGCP said that the system that controls the grid is being operated by “authorized Filipino technical experts” and cannot be accessed by remote users.
NGCP President and CEO Anthony Almeda clarified that the remote connection for the system “may only be granted to the Filipino CEO in an emergency situation and only after undergoing a secure and confidential approval process,” adding that “the grid’s data center is equipped with biometric controls so that only authorized NGCP personnel can enter. Its servers and workstations are also protected by firewalls and layers of authentication systems to block unauthorized access.”
Although NGCP Spokesman Cynthia Perez-Alabanza said that allegations that China can remotely access and shut down the grid are “baseless” and “purely speculative,” a number of senators are pushing for a Senate inquiry. Hontiveros said: “We need to know for certain if our energy systems and infrastructure fully remain under Filipino control, and if we have implemented the technical safeguards needed to prevent foreign interference in, or sabotage of, our national electricity grid.”
While there’s a need to assess all concerns raised over China’s investment in NGCP, caution must be exercised against exaggerating the “dangers” posed by the 11-year-old Filipino-Chinese consortium managing the national grid. Until our national security officials and an expert group composed of engineers, scientists, IT and cyber experts—the ones that Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian deems most qualified to do an audit—confirm the “risks” that the Chinese group can switch off NGCP’s transmission operations at will, let’s refrain from treating SGCC as a wicked partner of Filipino investors that formed the Filipino-Chinese consortium, which has been delivering power to 100 million Filipinos for 11 years.
2 comments
Why would China do that? Is the Philippines a strategic threat to China?? Would shutting down the grid assist in the Philippines repaying the many billions of dollars in debt to China?
Why would the Chinese help the Philippines pay their debt to them if their primary purpose of lending it is to seize the country? Dobyou really believe Chinese are wholeheartedly and honest friends? Are you thinking?