NGCP not solely to blame for Panay blackout - Chiz

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) is not solely to blame for the Panay power outage, Sen. Francis Escudero said, adding that power plants also failed in ensuring the island's power supply.

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Escudero said calls to revoke NGCP's franchise due to its lapses as the country's sole grid operator should not be used to threaten other franchise holders.

"I don't think we should be too 'light handed' about franchise revocations. Lest it is perceived as a sword of Damocles hanging over all franchise holders whenever they do something wrong or displease the powers that be," Escudero said.

During the Senate hearing into the outage on Wednesday, Escudero said the unscheduled maintenance of the power plants also contributed to the disconnection of Panay from the Visayas grid, and that other stakeholders in the power transmission grid were also a fault.