‘Government, businesses use renewable energy projects to exploit resources’ 26 July 2026

MANILA — The country’s expansion of renewable energy (RE) sources places Filipino indigenous peoples (IP) groups, farmers, fisherfolk, and the urban poor at the forefront of environmental and human rights violations, health hazards, displacement and loss of livelihood. 

Under the Philippine Energy Plan (2023-2050), the government aims for a 50% RE share in the country’s power generation mix by 2040 and a larger percent of RE in energy sourcing by 2050. 

As of 2026, the country is still reliant on fossil fuels such as coal (56.4%) and gas (17.9%) for its energy supply. A 2025 report by the Philippine Center of Investigative Journalism showed that these “dirty” energy generation remains dominated by the Aboitiz, Ang, and Lopez families. 

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DOE reported a total of 1,329 RE projects in the country, including 505 commercial solar power projects and 271 commercial wind power projects.

Solar and wind power projects pose heavy environmental risks because of its high dependence on vast amounts of land. [...]

Unjust transition

Marcos Jr.’s aggressive push for RE projects exposed an intersection between IP rights, environmental rights, and basic human right violations from affected communities. 

This was reflected in Phase 1 of Aboitiz Renewables’ Olongapo solar power farm, its largest solar power project so far. Four barangays with IP communities and farmers were affected by the ongoing operations of the solar power plant.

Julius Roa of PROPEL Pro-People Engineers and Leaders said that the construction of the solar farm can disrupt biodiversity since trees cut for the plant meant lost habitat for birds in the area. “The loss of these trees, which prevent soil erosion during heavy rainfall, can possibly affect the quality of water supply of the communities,” he said. “The surface runoff will negatively affect the water quality. It was said before that there were fishes among the streams, but now there’s none,” Roa said in Filipino. 

The lost tree and land cover also resulted in less resources for the residents whose main livelihood is by harvesting fruit-bearing trees and farming along the mountains claimed by the power farm. [...]

According to Katribu Secretary-General Funa-ay Claver, the lack of consultations and the disregard of the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) process also showed a blatant disregard for IP rights during the solar farms construction. [...]

Residents also became more vulnerable to disaster and health risks, as well as geographic vulnerability due to the heat and susceptibility of the area to floods. Their calls for interventions from their local government unit, Aboitiz Renewables, and key government institutions, were ignored.

Nueva Ecija residents and small-scale farmers also had the same problems because of the ongoing MTerra Solar Project of the Meralco PowerGen Corporation (MGEN). 

Katribu called for a stop in using prime agricultural lands for RE projects. [...]

Rights groups called for national industrialization, creation of a People’s National Energy Plan, and strengthening the local RE manufacturing capacity.

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