Palace defends decision to end Chinese involvement in NGCP

Malacañang on Saturday defended the decision of the Department of Energy to end Chinese involvement in the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the DOE based its decision on a thorough study of the advantages and disadvantages of the matter.

"We’re quite certain that the Department of Energy has arrived at this particular conclusion after a thorough study of the advantages and disadvantages of it. We’ll leave it to (DOE) Secretary (Carlos Jericho) Petilla to give more details on that, but we’re quite certain that it is a product of a thorough study by the Department of Energy – that decision," she said on government-run dzRB radio.

Earlier, China urged the Philippines to be fair to the Chinese State Grid Corp.'s involvement in building the Philippines' national power grid.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the Chinese firm made important contributions, and called on the Philippines to protect its legitimate interests.

A report on China's state-run China Central Television said the Chinese firm won a 25-year license in 2007 to run the Philippine transmission grid.

When asked to comment on speculations that this could be a response to the Philippines' ongoing territorial row with China over some parts of the South China Sea (part of it Manila calls West Philippine Sea), Valte replied the two countries have a multi-faceted relationship.

"You know, we’ve always said that we have a multifaceted relationship with our neighbor, and that as much as possible, no matter what challenges we are facing in one facet of the relationship, we always endeavor to develop the other facets of that relationship and we try not to let it spillover into the other levels of that relationship," she said.

When asked if the Philippines can assure the legitimate rights of China's State Grid Corp.'s personnel, she said, "We’re quite certain that the decision is a product of a thorough study, of course, taking into consideration the legalities by the Department of Energy." — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News