[Part I] NGCP: The Presidential Patience Wears Thin

When President Marcos Jr. boomed “Mahiya naman kayo” in the context of public works delays, it wasn’t an offhand quip.

Next. President Marcos appears to have grown tired of excuses, missed deadlines, and full charges for half-built promises. (Photos: Bongbong Marcos Facebook / JDipterocarpus Wikimedia Commons)

It was the snap of a tether — a rare moment when the ceremonial calm cracked, and the country caught a glimpse of the exasperation beneath. This was not the President in debate or campaign mode; this was the voice of someone tired of excuses, missed deadlines, and full charges for half-built promises.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) now finds itself squarely in that line of fire.

Transmission projects — lifelines meant to keep the lights on, prevent crippling blackouts, and connect much-needed renewable energy — remain stuck in limbo years after being greenlit.

Yet, curiously, their costs have already been baked into the transmission fees that every household and business sees on its monthly bill.

It’s a quiet, persistent drain — a surcharge on patience. Filipinos are paying today for reliability promised yesterday and that may only arrive tomorrow, if at all.

NGCP’s explanations — right-of-way hurdles, permitting bottlenecks, and global supply chain disruptions — have been repeated so often they now read like boilerplate.

But they start to ring hollow when set beside the company’s glowing profit declarations and clockwork dividend payouts. Shareholders seem to be rewarded with the precision of a Swiss watch; the nation, on the other hand, waits in the dark.

The President’s “Mahiya naman kayo” resonates because it carries more than political rhetoric.

It channels the irritation of millions of consumers who have grown skeptical of energy security pledges after watching the same towers remain unfinished and the same justifications recycled year after year.

In the power sector, time isn’t measured in hours or days — it’s counted in megawatts.

Delays here aren’t neutral; they ripple through the economy, stalling factories, deterring investors, and keeping the cost of power stubbornly high.

Every month lost to inaction is another month the Philippines remains less competitive than it could be.

What’s needed now is not another polite audit of the paperwork.

The Energy Regulatory Commission must set firm, enforceable timelines, claw back charges for undelivered projects, and make sure the cost of delay is shouldered by those responsible — not those billed.

Because if dividends keep flowing while transmission towers stand half-built, we won’t just have a fragile grid — we’ll have a network of excuses, sagging under their own weight, humming faintly with the current of work left undone.

And when the next bill arrives — with numbers climbing higher than last month’s — we may finally start asking where every peso really goes.

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Part II will expose NGCP's hidden charges and scrutinize how consumers are paying for power that never arrives.

READ HERE: [Part II] A Court of Fairness, A Ledger of Silence