EXPLAINER: Leviste still owns parent company with stake in DOE contracts

The Solar Philippines group, founded and partly owned by Batangas Representative Leandro Leviste, is a multi-layered conglomerate worth more than a hundred billion pesos worth of assets, their corporate filings showed, but it has now been fined P24 billion by the Department of Energy (DOE) for stalled renewable energy (RE) contracts that had cost the government and the people.

What they dubbed the country’s largest solar company back then is now being investigated by the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged “flipping,” or selling the company to another owner without sanction by the government that awarded contracts to him. It turned out also that the company, which was granted a franchise by the government, is now non-operational.

Leviste is controversial for his possession of the so-called Cabral files, or confidential budget documents by the late former DPWH undersecretary Catalina Cabral, which allegedly show who the project proponents were.

Leviste still owns parent company

Leviste’s ownership of Solar Philippines is being scrutinized as he confronts questions of conflict of interest since he won as representative of the 1st District of Batangas in the May 2025 midterm elections.

Leviste is still the president and CEO of Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings (SPPPHI), or the parent company, based on the company’s general information sheet (GIS) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June 2025, or a month after he won the congressional seat.

Leviste said he declared this in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), and that this disclosure ensured he did not violate any law.

“Malinaw sa batas na walang paglabag ang ownership, financial interest ko sa Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings na may interes nga sa DOE contracts,” he said during a press conference on January 16. (It’s clear there is no violation with my ownership, or financial interest in Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings that has interest in DOE contracts.)

There are 31 SPPPHI subsidiaries and affiliates. Some of them were the ones awarded contracts by the DOE to explore and develop solar power projects in several areas nationwide. These were long-running operating contracts, some for 25 years.

Section 14, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution prohibits members of Congress from being “interested financially in any contract with… government… during his term of office.”

Leviste said he was advised that he was not covered by the legal prohibition if “I-disclose mo tapos huwag kang magkaroon ng participation sa mga diskusyon sa Kongreso tungkol sa mga sektor ng kumpanya mo (you disclose it and you don’t participate in any discussion in Congress about the sector your companies are part of).”

Shares in Manny Pangilinan’s SPNEC

Several subsidiaries, through the parent SPPPHI, executed Deeds of Assignment and Assumption (DOASS) to sell their rights, titles, and interests to Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corporation (SPNEC), according to SPPPHI’s financial statements.

When SPNEC incorporated in November 2016, it was also a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SPPPHI. Leviste then sold controlling shares of SPNEC to tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan in 2023.

As of June 2025, majority or 53.66% of SPNEC is owned by Pangilinan’s MGEN Renewable Energy Incorporated. MGEN’s shares are worth P37.28 billion.

Leviste’s SPPPHI remains a 27.34% shareholder of SPNEC, a stake valued at P18.9 billion. Leviste is vice chairman of the board of SPNEC, while Pangilinan is the chairman. SPNEC later renamed to Solar Power New Energy Corporation, retaining the acronym.

SPNEC is different from Solar Para sa Bayan Corporation or SPBC. The company SPBC, set up by Leviste in 2018, was the company granted a franchise by the Duterte-time Congress in 2019.

This is why Leviste is refuting the allegations of franchise flipping, saying that what he sold was SPNEC, which did not have a franchise from Congress.

Transfer of DOE contracts to SPNEC

SPNEC, however, took over the DOE contracts awarded to other subsidiaries, including one of the biggest, Solar Philippines Commercial Rooftop Projects (SPCRPI). DOE awarded SPCRPI a service contract in August 2017 to develop and explore the Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija solar power project, with an aim to start operating by 2022.

The project was a 500-megawatt peak (MWp) solar power plant project. By December of 2017, SPCRPI executed a deed of assignment, transferring all of its rights and obligations under the DOE service contract to SPNEC, according to the 2017-2020 financial statement of SPNEC.

DOE acknowledged the transfer in 2018. But then Leviste sold controlling shares of SPNEC in 2018.

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said the ownership change was not recognized by the DOE, telling radio DZBB on Wednesday, January 14: “‘Pag DOE kasi ang tinanong mo, ‘pag naglipat ka ng ownership, dapat sabihan mo ang DOE kasi tina-transfer mo eh. As far as we’re concerned, wala pong request for assignment… so hindi pa naililipat. Ang ownership ng Solar Philippines is about 99% kay Congressman Leviste.” 

(If you ask the DOE, if you transfer ownership, you should inform the DOE. As far as we’re concerned, there’s no request for assignment… so it hasn’t been transferred. Congressman Leviste still owns around 99% of Solar Philippines.) 

SPCRPI is also still owned by Leviste as of June 2025.

All in all, DOE awarded Solar Philippines companies contracts for projects that are supposed to generate almost 12,000 megawatts. Energy officials said the rescinded contracts, including those of Solar Philippines, are a crackdown on “zombie” projects — or developments that hold land, permits and grid access but have shown no promise of being completed.

Leviste said: “Wala po ako kahit piso na natanggap mula sa gobyerno. Ito po ay parang nagtatayo ka ng building or shopping center, tapos hindi maituloy kasi hindi ka makakuha ng permit to operate,” he said.

(I never received a single peso from the government. This is similar to constructing a building or a shopping center, but you cannot operate it because you can’t get a permit to operate.)

Under the green energy auction program, the Philippine government bids out renewable energy projects to developers. The private firms bid to supply cheap renewable power to distribution utilities, and builds facilities at their cost. The government acts as regulator – and part of that regulation was to fine Solar Philippines for supposedly not keeping some commitments.

Solar Para sa Bayan ends

After Leviste became congressman, he divested from a company called Solar Para sa Bayan Corporation or SPBC, which holds the congressional franchise to provide renewable energy sources to 18 provinces across the Philippines.

SPBC promised to “end energy poverty by 2022,” but what really ended that year was its operations.

SPBC incurred hundreds of millions worth of losses since it was granted the franchise in 2019, according to its financial statements. It was able to open six operating sites, and was working on getting local governments to donate some sites.

By January 2022, the company’s liabilities had exceeded its assets by P455.5 million. It soon stopped operating the sites, and has been non-operational since 2022.

Leviste said it was because the DOE never issued the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) required by the franchise law, “at kung hindi mag-ooperate ng two years, ito ay ipso facto revoked (and if it does not operate for two years, it is ipso facto revoked).”

But the company did not dissolve. Instead, Leviste donated all his SPBC shares to his associate, Hazel Iris Lafuente Buencamino, when he won a congressional seat, according to an August 2025 filing.

The company is now worth P784,628, and Buencamino, who is now the owner of SPBC, remains as the chief operating officer of the parent SPPPHI. Buencamino is also still a stockholder and board member of the Pangilinan-controlled SPNEC.

“As of July 10, 2025, the [SPBC’s] management has no plans to liquidate the Company. The Company is currently evaluating business opportunities and potential funding sources to support its operations,” said its auditor when they filed the financial statement.

SPBC is the root of why Leviste filed a civil defamation complaint against Press Undersecretary Claire Castro, demanding P111 million in damages for alleged “untrue, reckless, and malicious” statements. Castro had criticized the selling of a franchisee to Pangilinan, when Leviste pointed out it was a different company.

“The truth of the matter is that no shareholdings or whatever corporate interest of SPBC were sold,” Leviste said in his complaint against Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro.

The parent company financed SPBC

Although SPBC appears to be a standalone company, it was still financed by the parent company and other subsidiaries.

In 2021, when it was already suffering from losses, and its auditors were already expressing “significant doubt on the company’s ability to continue,” SPBC’s management said it was relying on some financing from SPPPHI.

“The Company’s major stockholder, through Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc. (SPPPHI) and Solar Philippines Commercial Rooftop Projects Inc. (SPCRPI), has a commitment to provide continued financial support to enable to the Company to meet its obligations as and when they fall due and continue as a going concern,” its auditor said in their 2021 financial statement.

The majority stockholder being referred to was Leviste. – with reports from Iya Gozum/Rappler.com