The Bill You Didn’t Approve: What A Former Finance Undersecretary Sees In NGCP’s Spending

By Lito U. Gagni

Despite the turbulent weather, the Monday Circle Forum at The Westin Manila hummed with quiet anticipation.

Dr. Magno ticked off other examples where the public silently shoulders costs: coal exports left untaxed due to outdated interpretations of law; a uniform 20% final tax on time deposits that punishes saving; sin tax hikes softened under populist pressure despite rising smoking rates. (Photo: DanGat1111 Wikimedia Commons)

Over coffee and measured conversation, economist and former Finance Undersecretary Dr. Cielo Magno took her seat among business and financial thought leaders.

When her turn came, she spoke in the even cadence of a professor — calm, precise — but what she said landed like a pebble in still water, sending ripples across the room.

“As the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is a monopoly, it bears watching to look at the expenditures the monopoly charged to operational costs… it could mean bloating ad spend to reduce their tax burden.”

There was no drama in her delivery, just the soft authority of someone who has read enough balance sheets to smell smoke before seeing fire.

For NGCP, a Monopoly Without a Rival

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines occupies a unique — and uniquely sensitive — position. It holds the concession to operate, maintain, and expand the country’s transmission network.

There is no competitor to switch to, no alternative grid to plug into. For consumers, its charges are a fact of life. For regulators, they are supposed to be a matter of close scrutiny.

The NGCP holds the concession to operate, maintain, and expand the country’s transmission network.

Advertising and corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects are not inherently suspect; they can even serve the public good. But in a monopoly, the source of funding matters.

When such expenses are treated as operational costs, they don’t just appear on a company’s books — they find their way into your monthly bill. At the same time, they can shrink the taxable income on which the company owes the state.

It is, in effect, generosity and self-promotion billed in your name.

The Quiet Arithmetic of Trust

Picture your electricity bill as a pie. The largest slice goes to running and maintaining the transmission network — the wires, towers, and substations that keep the country’s lights on.

Other slices cover administration, payroll, and contingencies. But then there are the thinner, less-noticed slices: the billboards by the highway, the sponsored events, the logo on a school building.

These are the slices the public never got to order. And because NGCP is a monopoly, it’s not as if you can ask for the pie without them.

Magno is not alone in raising this concern. Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Monalisa Dimalanta, before her resignation, also noted the need to examine how advertising and CSR costs are classified.

The issue is not whether a company can market itself or give to charity; the issue is whether those costs should be drawn from a revenue stream guaranteed by law, paid by a public with no other choice, and possibly used to lower the company’s tax bill.

It is a governance question as much as it is an accounting one. And in a season when the nation’s top leadership has already spoken out against certain monopolistic practices in other sectors, this too may deserve a closer look.

A Broader Pattern

In the same forum, Dr. Magno ticked off other examples where the public silently shoulders costs: coal exports left untaxed due to outdated interpretations of law; a uniform 20% final tax on time deposits that punishes saving; sin tax hikes softened under populist pressure despite rising smoking rates.

Different sectors, different mechanics — but the same pattern: when oversight is loose and incentives misaligned, the public pays more than it knows.

This is not a call to storm the gates. It is a call to see the receipt. In a monopoly, the absence of competition makes transparency the only substitute.

We may not choose who runs the grid, but we can — and should — insist on knowing exactly what we’re paying for, and why. Because in the end, trust is like power: it runs strongest when the lines are clear.