NGCP: Tribunal ruling ends claims of illegal ownership
By Alena Mae S. Flores – February 26, 2025, 8:20 pm
from manilastandard.net
National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said Wednesday the ruling by the Arbitral Tribunal of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) should end allegations that the company violated the Anti-Dummy Law.
The SIAC Arbitral Tribunal issued a final award in favor of NGCP in an arbitration case it filed against state-run agencies Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) and National Transmission Corp. (TransCo).
NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Perez-Alabanza said the ruling reaffirms the company’s position that it is “just following the laws that were passed by the government when they privatized the transmission and NGCP was given the concession.”
Alabanza said NGCP “won many victories” in the arbitration case and showed that it complied with its concession contract, franchise and other rules and regulations.
She said the Arbitral Tribunal ruled there was no violation of the Anti-Dummy Law, “because that’s one of the most deafening, shocking accusations about the nature of NGCP that we have been saying for a long time that we are Filipinos. Filipino Corporation, run by Filipinos, the management teams are Filipinos.”
Alabanza said they would have to resolve the obligations and receivables of the parties involved in the case as mandated by the tribunal’s ruling.
She said the ruling is not expected to affect the company’s operations but “hopefully, the weight of what the disinterested third party said will clear the clouds surrounding NGCP and how we run the transmission system.”
NGCP majority shareholder Synergy Grid & Development Phils. Inc. (SGP) disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday that the Arbitral Tribunal, in its final award on Feb. 19, 2024, declared that the transmission firm did not breach the nationality restrictions in the Philippine Constitution and the Anti-Dummy Law. The tribunal rejected PSALM and TransCo’s defense that this rendered NGCP’s claim to the validity of the prepayment or its other claims inadmissible or unenforceable.
“Under the UNCITRAL United Nations Commission on International Trade Law] rules, the yribunal’s award is final and binding on the parties and the parties undertake to carry out the award without delay,” SGP said.
