House orders probe into NGCP over massive Luzon-Visayas power outages

SPEAKER Faustino “Bojie” G. Dy III asked for the conduct of an investigation into the series of tripping of major transmission lines that caused widespread brownouts in Luzon and Visayas.

Under House Resolution No. 1024, filed on Monday, Mr. Dy and South Cotabato Rep. Ferdinand L. Hernandez sought to investigate the tripping of the 500-kilovolt Tayabas-Ilijan and Dasmariñas-Ilijan transmission lines on May 13, 2026.

The incident resulted in the loss of more than 2,462 megawatts of electricity, resulting in manual load dropping that affected an estimated 3.9 million customers in Metro Manila and parts of Calabarzon and Central Luzon, the lawmakers said in a media release.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) did not immediately respond to a Viber message seeking comment.

Mr. Dy emphasized the severity of the impact of the power outage on the public. “It is unacceptable that millions of Filipinos have lost power due to the failure of our transmission system. Electricity is not a luxury — it is a basic necessity,” he said in Filipino.

The resolution also cited possible weaknesses in the maintenance and compliance of transmission operator NGCP, including alleged issues with “N-1 contingency compliance” and protection systems.

The lawmakers added it is possible that NGCP failed to promptly notify the Department of Energy and Energy Regulatory Commission of the incident within the stipulated time.

“It is a serious concern that NGCP failed to promptly declare and report the Tayavas-Ilijan-Dasmariñas line trip,” the resolution said.

In addition, the alleged failure to pass a complete root cause analysis report is also a possible violation of the Philippine Grid Code. — Pexcel John Bacon