Posted on 11/21/2019 5:30:15 AM PST by Roman_War_Criminal
The head of the National Transmission Corporation confirmed the possibility during a senate session.
China has part-owned the Philippines' national grid since 2009 - leading one senator to question whether China's "hegemonic ambitions" posed a security threat to the Philippines.
The countries have a territory dispute in the South China Sea.
"We have given our grid - although 40% it appears - to a foreign corporation that has interests that collide with our country in the West Philippine Sea," said Senator Richard Gordon, using the Philippine name for the eastern parts of the South China Sea.
"And that [country] obviously has a hegemonic ambition."
The senate heard that - although the power could be switched off remotely - the Philippines could restore it within 24 to 48 hours.
China's State Grid Corp has a 40% stake in the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) - which runs the country's lone power transmission line.
It transmits electricity all the way from Luzon - the northern end of the country - down to Mindanao in the south.
On Tuesday, Senator Risa Hontiveros asked - given Chinese control of the NGCP - "Is it possible for our power grid to be taken down remotely?"
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
And this is why it is dangerous to allow foreign entities to have ownership in national infrastructure. How much of ours does China own through the back door I wonder?
Except that the Philippines president has conceded the South China sea to China even though Philippines won in an International court. Hes a Communist and a lover of Communist China.
re: “Is it possible for our power grid to be taken down remotely?”
NOT if you remove their ability to “connect” into it. Pull the right 100baseT ‘patch’ cable and you’re protected.
“Following criticism from United Nations human rights experts that extrajudicial killings had increased since his election, Duterte threatened to withdraw the Philippines from the UN and form a new organization with China and African nations.[32] He has declared his intention to pursue an “independent foreign policy”,[33] and sought to distance the Philippines from the United States and European Union and pursue closer ties with China and Russia.” (Wiki)
California and Communist China have this in common.
Refurb the Enterprise’s nuke plants
with added capacity and fuel and
park it in Manilla Bay.
7
Sure.. They have power transmission lines over the ocean???? The next northern Island is almost 20 miles away.
Allowing yourself to be Blackmailed
Davao City has its own electrical generating station. As far as I know, it’s gas powered.
When China started building the islands, Obama pressured the Philippine president not to respond militarily to stop their harassment of Filipno fishermen when they “roped off” the shoals. Since no one stopped them, they then went on to build the islands, which not only steal the fishing and oil resources from the Philippines (and Viet nam) but enable them to militarily block shipping from the Middle East to Japan and Korea.
So Duterte was confronted with a China that had militarized islands when he took over. He tried to make nice, but China screwed him anyway. This was bad, because the average Filipino hates China, since the Chinese immigrants and the part Chinese elites run the economy and prevent ordinary Filipinos not related to them (e.g. from marriage) from getting ahead.
The back story is that the last election was supposed to be won by either a crooked candidate the US could control, or by an actual American citizen with CIA ties. Duterte stepped in the last minute and won, because the ordinary people voted for him. Since then, the CIA, CIA funded “news” groups, human rights groups, the Francis Catholic church, and the educated class/elites of Manila have been busy fighting him.
There are a lot of similarities between the CIA attempt to get rid of him and how the CIA got rid of the Russian friendly president of the Ukraine. The difference is that here he is popular with ordinary folk. The elite complain if druggies are killed, but ignore that drug related crime and political hit jobs in the past killed a lot of non elite innocent folk but weren't noticed by the elite.
You can “buy” protesters here for ten dollars a day, yet the protests against Duterte have been small.
Mindanao has hydroelectric power plants, and more.
Exactly my point.. There are no power transmission line between Mindanao and other Islands.
Wait, this is a thread about Prince Andrew?
Everything you said about Duterte and the Philippines is true, except he did in fact tank the South China Sea legal victory which Philippines had already won, and he has China massively investing in Philippines. He stated publicly that he wanted to boot the American military but his generals insisted they need our help.
Yes he’s popular, yes it’s a corrupt country and the liberal media hate him, but yes he also admires the Red Chinese and he’s an odd duck in his own right.
I also question with all the murders of drug dealers and his supposed war on them, has the Philippine drug problem abated significantly?
StrategyPage has a good summary of what is going on:
https://www.strategypage.com/qnd/phillip/articles/20191119.aspx
as for Duterte letting China take over the West Philippine sea: Obama pressured the previous president not to oppose them by sending the coast guard to stop China from harassing our fishermen, or by chasing Chinese boats building the islands. Instead Obama insisted he only go to court.
Now Duterte realizes no one can stop China and tried to make nice. But China didn't give much help, and most non elites here hate the Chinese for running the economy (which has been going on for 100 years) and making it impossible for locals to succeed.
Duterte hates the CIA because when he was mayor of Davao they got a guy out of jail and out of the country.
The CIA is busy opposing Duterte: they had chosen another candidate with CIA ties to win, and if she lost, their second choice was a crooked politician who they could influence. Instead the last minute Duterte won, thanks to grass roots support (by workers and small business owners). So the elites and NGOs and the MSM hate him: take his sarcasm out of context, exaggerate every murder as his fault (even when drug dealers kill each other, or when families whose members had died due to drugs arranged private revenge against the dealer). Even the political murders of low level mayors etc. blamed on him, even though these too were common before he took office.
The Philippines has a love/hate relationship with the USA. They don't want the US to own the country and run it, which is why the military bases were closed down in the early 1990s.
but most Filipinos like Americans and distrust China: however, they also know they can't fight China by themselves because we'd lose (a couple years ago, Vietnam fought China for stealing some of their islands, and lost that war: which is why VietNam now welcomes the US helping).
I suspect that is true. One of our farm workers (and his friend) were selling shabu and got a warning. The friend then ended up dead so the farm worker told us goodbye and left to go to his home village in the Visayas where he'd be safe.
It really annoyed my step son, because the field had been prepared but not planted, so he had to run around and find another farmer: something not easy to do at the height of planting season. and yes: it is much safer now. And Duterte is still popular here
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.