Grid operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines on Tuesday denied claims that the company employs foreigners in executive and management positions.
NGCP president and chief executive Anthony Almeda said in a statement all corporate acts of the company complied with the Constitution and other laws.
Some senators earlier claimed that NGCP violated the Constitution by employing foreign nationals in executive and management positions, referring to Wen Bo and Liu Zhiaoquiang.
“Messrs. Bo and Liu left the country in 2018 and 2015, respectively. They held technical positions in the company,” Almeda said.
The company said it was diligent in implementing board and management directives and did so with utmost regard for the law and other rules and regulations.
“We have only four directors from the State Grid Corporation of China who do not perform executive or management functions,” he said.
NGCP is 60-percent controlled by local companies Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp. and Calaca High Power Corp. with each holding 30 percent. SGCC owns 40 percent.
Almeda said any audit of NGCP should be conducted by the proper regulatory agency, which in this case is the Energy Regulatory Commission—the independent body tasked by law and recognized by the concession agreement.
Almeda earlier said there was no need for the Chinese to “turn over” its system operations to Filipinos as control has always been and remains with the Filipinos.
He also debunked the claim of the National Transmission Corp. that the company’s system operations is presently controlled and operated by China through SGCC.
“As to statements attributed to some government officials which claim that the Chinese have been granted the power to remotely shut down the national transmission system, [it is not true]. There is no proverbial red button that can instantly turn off the Grid,” Almeda said.
He said the software and hardware system that controls the national grid—the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system—is a stand-alone system that is not connected to the internet or any network.
“The SCADA is disconnected from the Virtual Private Network or VPN by default, rendering an unsupervised direct remote access impossible,” Almeda said.
“There is also no truth to the insinuation that NGCP allows international remote access to the grid through the intercontinental submarine network installed by Huawei and allegedly linked to the national grid,” he said.
Almeda said the management and control of NGCP’s system operations are exercised exclusively by Filipino engineers.
“Even the specifications of technical equipment sourced from various suppliers were designed by Filipino engineers before purchase orders were made. The fact that a number of these technical equipment were supplied by Chinese entities does not mean that SGCC now exercises control over system operations,” Almeda said.