PBBM slams NGCP for recent Panay island-wide blackout handling

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday slammed the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines for its handling of the recent island-wide blackout in Panay Island, accusing it of failing to act during a crucial window that could have prevented the crisis.

The blackout, which began on January 2nd and lasted for several hours, affected millions of residents and businesses across major cities and provinces in Panay.

In a video message posted on Facebook, Marcos expressed his concern for the significant hardship caused by the outage, highlighting the disruption to businesses, livelihoods, and even healthcare access.

"While power has been restored, the situation caused significant hardship to our people," Marcos said, highlighting the impact on businesses, livelihoods, and healthcare.

"The losses incurred are substantial, and accountability lies with the NGCP," Marcos added.

The President pointed to NGCP's failure to act during a crucial two-hour window before the system collapsed, despite the Independent Market Electricity Operator of the Philippines' warnings.

He further noted that this is not the first time such a blackout has occurred, referencing a similar incident in April 2023 that prompted an investigation into NGCP's performance.

"Regrettably, NGCP failed to resort to manual load dropping, a missed opportunity that led to this crisis," Marcos said.

He also criticized the missed deadlines for the completion of interconnection projects that could have improved grid stability, specifically the Panay-Negros-Cebu interconnection originally promised for August 2023 and the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection now pushed to late January 2024.

While acknowledging the efforts of distribution utilities and cooperatives in mitigating the impact, Marcos focused on NGCP's responsibility to maintain grid stability and proactively address breakdowns.

"Accountability lies with the NGCP. They are tasked with grid stability. Stability involves proactive responses to breakdowns and unexpected events, a duty that NGCP unfortunately has not fulfilled adequately," Marcos said.

He called for increased transparency from NGCP to its stakeholders, regulators, and the public, urging them to identify and address weaknesses in the transmission system for a more resilient power infrastructure.

"I have also directed the ERC to complete the reset of NGCP's rates without further delay," Marcos declared, ensuring compliance with regulations and preventing any attempts to delay necessary measures," Marcos said.

"Our commitment is to the well-being and prosperity of every Filipino, and we will work diligently to prevent such crises in the future," Marcos added.