National security cluster, not solons, should lead audit at NGCP–Gatchalian

By Butch Fernandez - December 2, 2019

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/12/02/natl-security-cluster-not-solons-should-lead-audit-at-ngcp-gatchalian/

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, Energy committee chairman, has played down the value of having lawmakers “inspect” facilities of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, saying it’s the government’s national security cluster that should take the lead in doing an audit amid concerns China, through its state-owned corporation that invested in NGCP, can remotely control the country’s power supply.

“We are not engineers, we’re not scientists,” Gatchalian said Sunday in a radio interview, ahead of a planned Senate inquiry as suggested by several senators, including himself.

Gatchalian added it is the national security cluster, headed by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, who is qualified to lead the audit because they have agencies with engineers and scientists under them, as well as “IT and cyber experts” who could assess the risks that an outside group can switch off at will the transmission operations of the NGCP.

The national security cluster includes the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Gatchalian noted.

Gatchalian disclosed he spoke to Esperon just this weekend “and they’re getting the data now.”

At the same time, the senator belittled an offer of the NGCP for lawmakers to inspect their facilities, asking aloud, “What will we do there?” He said they’ll see the same things that the Transco people also saw—the offices, facilities and operational manuals they are not familiar with.

Gatchalian—later echoed by a resolution of Sen. Risa Hontiveros—had earlier said he was flagged about the risks that Beijing through its state-run firm, could remotely control the Philippine power situation. While there is no evidence that this can in fact be done, Gatchalian said it was worth checking out considering the serious implications on the Philippines. The country has had a long-running maritime dispute with China despite the cozier relations between the Asian neighbors under the Duterte administration.

As for the Senate inquiry, he said it will have two trajectories—the national security angle and the operational angle, i.e., whether they are complying with the requirements of their franchise and the commitments they gave the government.

Gatchalian said they are targetting the “second and third week of December” for completing the inquiry.