NGCP and lack of public accountability

By Atty. Eduardo T. Reyes III

Created through the passage of RA 9511 entitled AN ACT GRANTING THE NATIONAL GRID CORPORATION OF THE PHILIPPINES A FRANCHISE TO ENGAGE IN THE BUSINESS OF CONVEYING OR TRANSMITTING ELECTRICITY THROUGH HIGH VOLTAGE BACK-BONE SYSTEM OF INTERCONNECTED TRANSMISSION LINES, SUBSTATIONS AND RELATED FACILITIES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, NGCP was granted a franchise endowing it with powers as follows:

“a franchise to operate, manage and maintain, and in connection therewith, to engage in the business of conveying or transmitting electricity through high voltage back-bone system of interconnected transmission lines, substations and related facilities, systems operations, and other activities that are necessary to support the safe and reliable operation of a transmission system and to construct, install, finance, manage, improve, expand, operate, maintain, rehabilitate, repair and refurbish the present nationwide transmission system of the Republic of the Philippines. x x x.”

                The operative words are “safe and reliable operation of a transmission system.”

Oxford Dictionary of English defines “safe” as “protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed or lost. In turn, “reliable” means “consistently good in quality or performance, able to be trusted.”

Yet, as the whole of Panay Island had experienced a few hours after noon of January 02, 2024, when electricity started to flicker, until it was lost altogether, plunging it into darkness, first metaphorically, then literally, NGCP’s mandate of ensuring a “safe and reliable operation of a transmission system” had likewise flickered and then went away.

Almost 19 hours after, and as of this writing, electricity, instead of being restored gradually, is dwindling even worse.

Section 4 of RA 9511 has granted the NGCP the power of eminent domain. It empowers NGCP to enter private lands and initiate expropriation proceedings in respect to lands that they choose as sites for their posts to be installed and transmission lines to traverse.

Ironically, while it was granted such immense authority to take lands for a public purpose, which is the essence of the power of eminent domain, there is nothing in the 17 sections of RA 9511 that would hold anyone accountable to the public for this imbroglio.

Indeed, Section 5 of RA 9511 has  “granted to the President to temporarily take over in times of war, rebellion, public peril, calamity, emergency, disaster or disturbance of peace and order”; however, until now, no governmental finger was lifted to assuage this dire situation that residents of Panay Island are in. But what is odd is that there is no provision on who is accountable in times of a fiasco as this recent one.

NGCP is listed as a consortium of private companies with the State Grid of China among them. The only safeguard under RA 9511 is that at least 60% of the capital stock of NGCP must be owned by Filipinos and/or Filipino corporations. Yet again, there is nothing in the law that calls for public accountability.

Almost a day after the “tripping” of power, no update or solution is in sight. Where is public accountability?

As Tamara Renaye quipped: “Accountability feels like an attack when you’re not ready to acknowledge how your behaviors harm others.”

And what is the harm? They are too many to mention. But to name two important ones:

1)January 2 is the first working day of the year and everyone is trying to pick up the pieces from the staggered work days during the Christmas holidays; and,

2) The elderly and the sickly are dependent on electricity for their survival.

                On a personal note, prior to writing this article, this columnist called his septuagenarian mom who could barely talk on the phone as she was under asthma attack. She could not operate her nebulizer without electricity.

For that, and for everyone’s sufferings, this column will forever be unable to forgive NGCP.

                (The author is the senior partner of ET Reyes III & Associates- a law firm based in Iloilo City. He is a litigation attorney, law professor, MCLE lecturer, bar reviewer and book author. His website is etriiilaw.com).