Philippine senators have called for an investigation into the security implications of China's part ownership of the national energy grid, after officials said engineers in Beijing could plunge the entire country into darkness with the flick of a switch.
The State Grid Corporation of China, China's largest utility company, holds a 40% stake in the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), a private consortium in charge of running the country's power grid.
Opposition Liberal Party senator Risa Hontiveros first raised questions over the extent of Beijing's control over the Philippines' power network, given the continuing territorial dispute between the two countries in the South China Sea.
"What if someone in Beijing switches it off?" she asked energy officials during deliberations in the Senate on Tuesday over the government budget.
Sherwin Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate committee on energy, said the National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) had studied the possibility.
TransCo owns the country's national transmission system, which is now run by the Chinese-backed NGCP under a concession.
"A takeover (by Beijing) can happen, but TransCo, with their technical capability, can then manually take over."
Gatchalian said the committee would invite national security experts to make sure there were contingency plans.
He also reminded lawmakers that a clause in the franchise agreement gave the Philippine president the power to reclaim all energy assets in the event of "public peril," adding that national security would be "100 percent protected."
However, Senator Miguel Zubiri, an ally of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, questioned if the law would still work if a war broke out between the two countries.
"If we are being invaded and they black us out, then that is a problem," he said.
Recent media reports have claimed only foreign engineers are able to troubleshoot, operate and control the NGCP's power transmission network because the monitoring and control system is located in China under the Nari Group, based in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing.
Others have reported that instruction manuals are in Chinese and that Filipino engineers are unable to operate the system.
Nari Group's system also supplies remote control systems to power grids in Kenya, Indonesia and Thailand, she said, countries which "may be sources of assurance for us or important cautionary lessons."
Gatchalian conferred with the energy officials during the Senate session and said the Chinese manuals had been translated to English and that Filipino engineers were operating the grid.
But Senator Richard Gordon insisted the matter be further verified.
The national security concerns were raised as senators awaited word from the Department of National Defence on whether it would allow Chinese-backed Dito Telecommunity Corporation " the Philippines' third and latest telecoms player " to install communication towers in military camps.
Last week, opposition Liberal Party president Francis Pangilinan reiterated in the Senate concerns raised in recent weeks that the deal would allow China to eavesdrop on the Philippine army.
He revealed that a risk assessment carried out by the Armed Forces of the Philippines had concluded that the current fixed communication system used to link all military camps and bases nationwide was "susceptible to electronic eavesdropping and interception."
Pangilinan added that eavesdropping equipment was "readily and cheaply available," which meant the Philippines must take steps to restrict access and secure the network.
The defense department promised to submit to the Senate before the end of November any memorandum of agreement signed with the firm.
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