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How Marcos-Duterte feud, political patronage derail Philippine solar energy push
Smaller and isolated provinces of the archipelagic country remain off-grid and still rely on power barges that use crude oil
- PUBLISHED: Tue 7 Apr 2026, 7:00 AM UPDATED: Tue 7 Apr 2026, 12:41 PM
The tropical Philippines may potentially source all its daily energy requirements from solar power, but it remains a pipe dream as production contracts approved by the government are embroiled in political patronage, controversy, corruption and predation.
More than a month into the conflict in the Middle East, the Southeast Asian country scrambles to buy fuel from other countries aside from its usual sources to ensure supply. While President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has assured more stocks are coming from new sources like Russia, he also asked Filipinos to implement energy-saving measures to help stretch resources while instability in West Asia prolongs.
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The Philippines consumes 20,669 megawatts (MW) of electricity daily, the majority of which is in Luzon (14,769 MW), followed by Visayas (93,111 MW) and Mindanao (2,789 MW). Nearly 60 per cent of these are generated by dirty coal-fired power plants. Natural gas produces 18-24 per cent, while geothermal and hydroelectric round it up at 8-10 per cent and 8-12 per cent, accordingly.
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Smaller and isolated provinces of the archipelagic country remain off-grid and still rely on power barges that use crude oil. They are most vulnerable to supply disruptions such as those brought about by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
But the Philippines may not be as desperate if only solar generation licences were not given to well-connected entities that treat renewable energy as nothing more than a scheme to get rich quickly, analysts noted.
Unfulfilled promise
In 2019, the Philippine Congress awarded a national franchise to a son of a senator who has thus far failed to deliver on his promise, despite becoming ultra-rich in the process.
A 20-year-old Leandro Leviste started a company that installed rooftop solar panels in 2013. But he was no business prodigy, analysts said, noting he was most likely aided by his parents’ funds. He is the son of estranged couple Senator Loren Legarda and former Batangas governor and convicted murderer Antonio Leviste.
In 2016 and 2017, the younger Leviste established his first solar farm in Batangas and his solar panel factory, respectively. But those were peanuts compared to his next move: a Congressional franchise to make him the biggest fish in the solar energy pond — thanks to his parents’ connections, a Manila politician pointed out.
Former Manila mayor and legislator Lito Atienza revealed earlier this year that the franchise given to Leandro’s Solar Para Sa Bayan (Solar for the People) company in 2019 was awarded due to active lobbying by his mother, Senator Legarda.
Despite Atienza’s opposition, the House of Representatives awarded the company a generous 25-year franchise to annually produce 12,000 MW, nearly two-thirds of the country’s electricity requirements. It did not hurt that Senator Legarda was an ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte, according to Atienza.
Under the said franchise, Leandro formed the Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corporation that went public in December 2021, becoming the first company to list under the Philippine Stock Exchange's renewable energy rules without a prior profit track record. He earned P34 billion (Dh2.125 billion) overnight, making him one of the youngest Filipino billionaires. He later renamed it Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc. (SPPHI), a name change befitting a billion-peso corporation.
In May 2025, Leandro was elected as Batangas 1st District Representative and started presenting himself as an anti-corruption crusader when the flood control scandal blew up under the Marcos Jr. government.
But as a pro-Duterte legislator, it did not take long for his business problems to be brought out into the sun, so to speak.
The Department of Energy revealed that 33 contracts of SPPHI, representing a potential capacity of approximately 11,427.83 MW, had been voided due to "non-delivery".
Marcos's allies also threatened imposing a hefty penalty on the younger Leviste for selling part of his holdings to power generator and distributor Meralco without seeking necessary permission from Philippine Congress.
Leviste has since significantly quieted down on his allegations of corruption under Marcos, even making himself scarce in the halls of Congress for stretches. Threats against his holding company have correspondingly muffled down as well.
It is sunny for most of the year in the Philippines, with an average of five full hours of sun every day. With the technology’s steady advance, thousands of households, businesses and government offices started putting up solar panels on rooftops in the 2010s to help lessen dependence on one of Asia’s most expensive electricity sources.
