A network of digital advocates blamed the company founded by Batangas 1st District Rep. Leandro Leviste for the Philippines’ failure to emerge as a regional data center hub.
According to Digital Pinoys national campaigner Ronald Gustilo, power projects awarded to Solar Philippines failed to deliver nearly 12 gigawatts of their committed renewable energy capacity.
Gustilo said this failure to deliver on its commitment to the Department of Energy (DOE) is now being felt by the Filipino people because of lost economic and employment opportunities. As a result, Solar Philippines now faces billions of pesos in penalties due to terminated contracts.
“This was not just an energy project failure. This was a lost national opportunity. The Philippines failed to build data centers, AI infrastructure, and a strong digital economy because electricity that was promised was never delivered,” Gustilo said.
Gustilo stressed that the undelivered 12 gigawatts of power could have supported more than a hundred hyperscale data centers and attracted over USD 100 billion in potential foreign investment.
Because of this failure, global technology firms expanded their operations in neighboring countries where power commitments were actually fulfilled.
“Data center investors don’t listen to projections or press releases. They look at delivered power. When projects of this scale fail, investors don’t wait. They leave—and they may never come back,” Gustilo emphasized.
The non-delivery of committed power capacity also severely damaged the country’s bid to become a host of cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
“Non-performance at this scale costs the country industries, jobs, and digital sovereignty. We lost a golden opportunity to compete at the ASEAN level—not because of a lack of vision, but because a company failed to deliver the contracts it won,” he said.
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla earlier confirmed that the government is investigating Leviste over the alleged sale of the mega-franchise granted to Solar Philippines without the required approval from Congress.
“Marami siyang ibang problema. Iyong prangkisa niya, iniimbestigahan na ngayon, iyong violation of franchise. Kasi dapat iyan iyong franchise ay hindi mo ninenegosyo. Batang-bata ka, ninenegosyo mo iyong franchise,” Remulla said.
In 2023, Leviste made headlines when he sold 14.6 billion shares of his company to Meralco PowerGen Corporation (MGen) for about P18.26 billion.
