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What punitive and corrective action does the Department of Energy (DOE) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) plan to impose against the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) over the massive power outage in Western Visayas? 

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte floated this question amid the growing anger of several sectors, including the members of the House of Representatives, over the widespread blackout that has pestered millions of residents. 

“We want to know what punitive and corrective actions the DOE and ERC are taking to make repeat offender NGCP account for its failure to prevent the regionwide blackout that the top official of one of the affected areas has described as nothing short of ‘economic sabotage,’ Villafuerte said in a statement over the weekend. 

He said the power outage that the NGCP has failed to prevent in the Panay provinces of Iloilo, Aklan, Capiz, Antique and Guimaras along with parts of Negros Occidental was indicative of two things. 

First the veteran solon said the DOE "needs to do something—and quick—to make sure this doesn’t happen for the fourth time or more on the watch of our national transmission operator". 

Second, Villafuerte said the 19th Congress "needs to decide on whether to alter or amend NGCP’s franchise agreement  to compel it to upgrade its system and spend a sizable chunk of its earnings on interconnecting our major islands, or to revoke its franchise altogether and award it to a much better concessionaire". 

According to Villafuerte, top DOE officials had fingered the concessionaire as the culprit behind  the power hitch, and reminded it of its responsibilities as the system operator in ensuring supply security and reliability nationwide.  

Villafuerte noted that Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara had stressed last Wednesday, Jan. 3 that the NGCP was “in a position to anticipate system disturbance such as what happened, which unfortunately resulted in the isolation of Panay from the rest of the Visayas grid due to the simultaneous tripping of power plants that caused multiple power interruption affecting other power plants and DUs (distribution utilities)". 

Guevara further said the system disturbance that happened to the Panay and Negros sub-grids in April 2023 should have been “a lesson for all the stakeholders involved, emphasizing that what happened yesterday (Jan. 2) could have been resolved differently". 

A media report also quoted ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta as blaming the NCGP for its “lapses” resulting from its failure to put in place fail-safe or protection systems and its non-completion of Panay Island’s transmission link to Negros and Cebu.  

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas has described the Jan. 2 blackout as nothing short of “economic sabotage” and blasted the NGCP for “incompetence". 

Based on an estimate by the Local Economic Development and Investment Promotion (LEDIP), Treñas said Iloilo City alone lost about P1.5 billion from the power interruptions and rotational brownouts over a three-day period. 

Villafuerte said the Congress might have to amend NGCP’s franchise agreement or scrap it entirely in favor of a more suitable transmission concessionaire “to enable  the government to deliver cheaper and more stable and accessible electricity to consumers, in keeping with President Marcos’ goal of achieving 100 percent household electrification by 2028".