The Department of Energy has filed an estafa complaint against Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste and two company officers, accusing them of using deceit and misrepresentation to secure solar and wind energy awards they allegedly never intended to build, but instead sought to land-bank for transfer or sale.
The supplemental complaint was filed by DOE Secretary Sharon Garin before the Taguig City Prosecutor’s Office. It came months after Garin first sued Leviste for violation of the Public Service Act over his alleged failure to provide electricity to remote and underserved communities, seven years after his company was granted a legislative franchise.
Garin said she filed the supplemental complaint for estafa after obtaining documents and discovering additional facts that allegedly show deceit and fraudulent representations on the part of Leviste and fellow respondents Hazel Iris Lafuente and Irma Flaminiano, which caused injury to the government.
According to her, Leviste, Lafuente, and Flaminiano, officers of the network of Solar Philippines corporate entities, submitted documents stating that the Solar companies are eligible and qualified under the Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP), which awards long-term power supply contracts to renewable energy developers.
Leviste also signed performance bonds, or securities that the Government may claim if the developer fails to perform.
Relying on these, the DOE awarded Leviste’s companies 1,350 MW of solar capacity and 30 MW of wind capacity.
But Garin said the DOE has since found that the companies were allegedly not financially qualified when they registered for the program and submitted documents.
She said Solar Philippines Commercial Rooftop Projects, Inc. (SPCRPI) and Solar Philippines Visayas Corporation (SPVC) had negative equity when they registered for the Green Energy Auction, while the SP New Energy Corp.’s equity was far below the 30 percent equity contribution that is the standard for the financing of utility-scale solar projects of comparable size.
“Respondents deliberately kept these disqualifications from the DOE,” she said.
Garin also pointed out that they delivered none of the offered capacity by December 25, 2025.
She said work programs were missed repeatedly, the performance security was allowed to lapse, and renewable energy rights were assigned, restructured, or sold.
“Taken together, this conduct shows what Respondents intended from the start. They never meant to build. They obtained these state-conferred rights by deceit and land-banked them—holding public concessions undeveloped until they could be assigned, restructured, or sold,” she said.
She said Leviste and his officers executed undertakings to hoard public energy concessions for subsequent inter-corporate transfer and capital monetization.
“They procured state privileges by DECEIT, held public energy rights they never intended to develop, and converted those rights to private gain—at the cost of the State and National Government, of the qualified bidders they displaced, and of the consuming public who never received the power they were promised,” she said.
According to Garin, the government rights that they obtained are valuable, scarce, and limited state concessions.
“The damage sustained by the State and National Government transcends administrative inconvenience; it constitutes a direct, sovereign impairment of the State’s regulatory authority,” she said.
She also said the respondents’ failure to deliver burdened consumers who had to pay higher electricity costs.
“The missing capacity directly inflated clearing prices, increased reserve procurement costs, and passed artificial financial burdens onto the consuming public,” she said.