MANILA, Philippines — Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III and Senior Deputy Speaker Ferdinand Hernandez on Monday filed a resolution seeking a congressional inquiry into the back-to-back tripping of major transmission lines operated by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) that triggered red and yellow alerts in the Luzon and Visayas grids.
House Resolution No. 1024 calls for an investigation, in aid of legislation, into the May 13 tripping of the 500-kilovolt Tayabas-Ilijan and Dasmariñas-Ilijan transmission lines that resulted in the sudden loss of more than 2,462 megawatts of power.
The massive disruption forced NGCP to implement Manual Load Dropping, affecting around 3.9 million customers in Metro Manila, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal.
“It is not acceptable for millions of Filipinos to lose power due to the failure of the transmission system. Electricity is not a luxury –it is a basic need that directly affects the livelihood, business, education and daily lives of the people,” Dy said in a statement.
The Speaker said the incident exposed serious weaknesses in the country’s power transmission backbone, and underscored the need for accountability and urgent reforms.
The resolution highlighted the need for Congress to determine whether the incident was caused by “force majeure” or by NGCP’s alleged failure to properly maintain and invest in the integrity of the national transmission system.
“It is imperative for the House of Representatives to determine if these incidents are a result of ‘force majeure’ or a failure of the NGCP to properly invest in and maintain the integrity of the national transmission backbone,” the resolution stated.
It also cited allegations that NGCP failed to promptly report the incident to the Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission, despite rules requiring an initial report within 60 minutes of any system disruption.
Dy said Congress has the responsibility to ensure that public utilities operating under legislative franchises are fulfilling their obligations to the Filipino people.
