The Department of Energy (DOE) said Wednesday that it had only retrieved P80 million out of the P24 billion in penalties from Solar Philippines, a company owned and founded by Batangas 1st District Rep. Leandro Leviste.

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said that the amount was meant as a payment for training and development fees, while other penalties were performance bonds that were supposedly part of the numerous government contracts awarded to the company.

“The P24 billion, Mr. Chair, is composed of different things,” Garin answered when asked by Akbayan Partylist Rep. Chel Diokno concerning developments on the amount that Solar Philippines needed to restitute to the government.

Diokno questioned why–up to this point–the recovered amount of the government was less than one percent despite the initial order for the payment first being issued in January of this year.

The DOE executive explained that actions concerning the retrieval of funds was already being handled by law enforcement authorities such as the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Secretary General (OSG), which was pursuing cases against the company.

“The issue currently is in the hands of the Department of Justice and…with the OSG also, Mr. Chair. And they are handling, the OSG is handling the civil case and the criminal cases with the DOJ,” she said.

Ombudsman probe

Among the agencies that were actively investigating a case against Leviste and his solar firms was the Office of the Ombudsman, with the latest development on the matter being submitted for preliminary investigation.

The case alleged that the lawmaker conspired with her mother, Senator Loren Legarda, and former energy secretary Alfonso Cusi to procure the contracts and “monopolize” solar power in the country.

In the preliminary stages of the probe, the state investigators recommended charges of graft and plunder to be filed against Leviste, Legarda, and Cusi related to over P10.44 billion in unpaid obligations of Solar Philippines to the government.

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said in a previous press conference that the development had led to recent surges in the price of electricity nationwide.

The Ombudsman labeled the case as an investigation into “ghost electricity,” likening the gravity of the issue to the multibillion peso flood control scandal.

“We’ve been hitting ghost projects, but this one is ghost electricity–they promised to produce electricity, they promised…to produce it using solar, but they did not do it,” Remulla said.

Blacklisting

While the cases are rolling in the judiciary, Diokno proceeded to identify whether the DOE had already taken steps to blacklist Leviste’s solar firm from further receiving government contracts.

Garin said that while there was no particular order that immediately blacklisted Solar Philippines, they were working on an order wherein power generation companies were given just “three strikes” before they were officially banned.

“I think a month or two months ago, we have recently issued a new circular on gencos accountability which gives them three strikes and we can blacklist them, and so it’s still under, we have just recently issued the guidelines and now we’re working on it,” she said.

Diokno urged the energy secretary to furnish the said order to the committee for consideration in the proposed budget of the DOE.