President’s Hall, Malacañan Palace
March 13, 2023

“This is an important day because now we have… made more robust the defense against any possible attacks on our power systems, on any other of the elements in our everyday lives that require power,” remarked President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. as he stood witness to a momentous signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) and National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) held at the Malacañan Palace.

“There have been fears that the involvement of any foreign entity in our power transmission system would present a security threat to the Philippines. Well, this is a very good step towards answering that challenge,” emphasized the President as he recognized the NGCP for taking the initiative, adding further that measures are being undertaken in developing the country’s cyber systems in a “secure fashion without the risk of it being used somehow against the Philippines”.

Under the MOU, the NGCP will provide technical assistance to the NICA, especially on energy-related security issues, that will greatly contribute to the Agency’s endeavors in cybersecurity.

The NGCP is a privately owned corporation taking lead in the operations, maintenance and development of the country’s state-owned power grid, which is an interconnected system that transmits gigawatts of power from where it is made to where it is needed. (https://www.ngcp.ph/profile).

For its part, the NICA, as the government agency mandated to direct, coordinate and integrate all government activities involving national intelligence, commits itself to providing the NGCP with intelligence that will aid in the protection of power transmission assets operated and maintained by the NGCP across the country.

“It is a good signal to all of us who have concerns in this regard, that we are doing many things to make sure that the Philippines remains secure, that the Philippines remains in accordance with international law, that the Philippines and its people can rest assured that their territory, their data, their personal information will not be used against us,” President Marcos Jr. ended in his keynote message.

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