Violation of the law could mean penalty of fine and imprisonment, including forfeiture of franchise.

POWER lines under threat? That’s what documents obtained by Daily Tribune say so as they reveal a powerful hold over the NGCP by a minority Chinese firm partner. ROMAN PROSPERO

From system operations to the hiring and deployment of drivers, a Chinese firm’s control over the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is so strong despite being a minority partner.

This was revealed by documents obtained by Daily Tribune, which showed Chinese nationals possessing the authority to hire and deploy personnel, including drivers, aside from having the authority to control the entire national grid system.

This, according to the document, is a clear violation of the Anti-Dummy Law, Republic Act 9511, the law that created NGCP, and the 1987 Constitution.

Part of the documents provided to Daily Tribune are those of NGCP-Human Resource Department memoranda, which were signed and approved by the Chinese nationals being pointed at as having control over the NGCP.

These, the papers alleged, endanger the state-owned power grid, which the NGCP operates, maintains and develops.

The NGCP is a privately-owned corporation composed of three partners in a consortium — Monte Oro Grid Resources Corporation, Calaca High Power Corporation and the State Grid Corporation of China, which has a minority 40 percent share.

But in one document, NGCP Memorandum HRD-2011-08-457, the agency’s human resource even had to ask approval for the reassignment and deployment of drivers from chief technical officer Liu Zhaoquiang, assistant chief technical officer-Operations and Maintenance of NGCP.

In another document, an NGCP “Manpower Request Form�? dated 3 June 2014 sought the approval of a certain Wen Bo, chief technical officer, for the hiring of a senior engineer needed to be assigned to the Luzon Systems Operation.

Yet another “Manpower Request Form�? for the hiring of a section head under the Planning and Engineering Audit Section had to be approved by Liu Xinhua, chairman of Board Audit Committee.

No Filipino manager was seen in charge of important and even minute operations of the NGCP, the document revealed.

Under Section 11, Article XII of the 1987 Constitution, however, hiring of foreign executives is prohibited in any public utility enterprise.

“The participation of foreign investors in the governing body of any public utility enterprise shall be limited to their proportionate share in its capital, and all the executive and managing officers of such corporation or association must be citizens of the Philippines,�? the Constitution stated.

Also, employment of Chinese supervisors was in violation of the Anti-Dummy Law, particularly Section 2-A, which prohibits those not possessing the qualifications required by the Constitution to intervene in the management, operation, administration or control of a corporation operating with a franchise.

Violation of the law could mean a penalty of fine and imprisonment, including the forfeiture of franchise.

RA 9511 Section 1 also provides that the nature and scope of the NGCP franchise is subject to the provisions of the Constitution and applicable laws, rules and regulations.

Earlier, a position paper obtained by Daily Tribune detailed the security implication of the Chinese control over the NGCP, via the 40 percent stake of State Grid Corporation owned by the Chinese government.

The documents noted that immediately after NGCP took over the national grid in 2009, one of its first projects was to replace the still functional System Operator’s Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition and the Energy Management System.

The systems were changed with the Chinese brand “Nari�? whose operational manuals are written in Chinese, which Filipino engineers could not comprehend, putting their level of competency limited to only the use of the equipment.

It was also cited that the current system relies heavily on information and communication technology for automatic and remote monitoring and control of power facilities.

“In case where the local engineers could not troubleshoot the protection and control relays, only Chinese engineers in China or anywhere in the world — given the password — can troubleshoot, operate and control the equipment in the Philippines,�? the documents stated.

“With the control system that only the Chinese fully understand and can manipulate remotely, the Philippine national power and cyber security are currently at very high risk,�? it added.

The documents showed that the operations and maintenance agreement with NGCP rendered the government “practically dependent on NGCP from development, operation and control of the national grid.�?

The government is being urged to consider taking over — at least in the system operation functions — the NGCP to protect national security.

The NGCP has an existing 25-year concession agreement and 50-year franchise with the National Transmission Corporation and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation.

“For national security considerations, it has become critically necessary for the government to recover the transmission business from the concessionaire NGCP,�? the documents recommended.

Daily Tribune has been contacting the NGCP for its side on the matter but to no avail.