Leviste bares admin allies asked him to travel, stop release of flood mess evidence

Batangas Representative Leandro Leviste said he has asked the leadership of the House of Representatives to allow him to travel abroad "upon the request of representatives of the administration."

"I asked for the travel authority upon the request of representatives of the administration who asked that I go abroad and stop releasing evidence linking government officials to anomalous DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) projects," Leviste said in a statement.

"Several high-level representatives of the administration have requested this — to my mom, so that I do not name them," said the son of incumbent Senator Loren Legarda.

Leviste, however, added that he will not be abroad for the entire duration of his travel request.

"I will be present at any opportunity that Congress gives me to speak on any issue, as long as I am asked or allowed," he said.

The Batangas lawmaker has yet to issue a copy of his travel request.

GMA News Online has reached out to House officials to confirm Leviste's request.

Last week, Leviste revealed a list of contractors who, he said, scooped up the largest government contracts sourced from unprogrammed appropriations in 2023 and 2024.

Leviste's office said they received the information from a DPWH insider. It also stressed that the list of unprogrammed appropriations is based on Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs), which are publicly accessible, and that the contractors are identified in the DPWH transparency portal.

Earlier, the lawmaker revealed he was also in possession of some of the files of the late DPWH Undersecretary Catalina Cabral showing the allocations of budget for government infrastructure projects per congressional districts.

DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon, however, said he never authenticated the supposed Cabral files released by Leviste.

The House committee on legislative franchises also earlier announced it would look into alleged issues related to the franchise granted by Congress to Leviste's solar power business.

The Department of Energy had disclosed some P24 billion in penalties to the Leviste-founded company Solar Philippines after the termination of over 11,000 megawatts worth of contracts in the past two years for failure to deliver on its production commitments.

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin had said the penalties include performance funds, along with contractual obligations or the supposed cost of the project, and the financial obligations, or the training and development fund, and other obligations in the contract.

The Energy Regulatory Commission also said it may investigate another solar company linked to Leviste over alleged excessive electricity charges.

Solar Para sa Bayan (SPBC) reportedly charged up to P18 per kilowatt-hour in Paluan, Occidental Mindoro, in 2020—rates that were not approved by the commission.

On January 23, Leviste announced he has stepped down from the board of directors of Terra Solar Philippines Inc. (MTerra Solar), an affiliate of Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGEN).

MTerra Solar is also a subsidiary of SP New Energy Corp. (SPNEC), which has applied for a corporate name change to MGEN Renewable Energy Holdings Inc. in preparation for the potential integration of its renewable energy assets under a single holding company structure.

Leviste founded Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc. (SPPHI), which was slapped with a P24-billion fine by the Department of Energy (DOE) for failure to produce its power commitments in over 30 service contracts with the government.

No ghost solar

In a statement early Friday, Leviste denied having ghost projects and added that he did not take a single peso from the nation’s coffers.

“Wala akong nakuhang kahit piso mula sa gobyerno, kaya wala akong ghost projects. Ang mga kontratang nakuha ng mga kumpanya ko ay mga permits para sa private investments, gamit ang sarili kong puhunan sa sarili kong lupa,” he said.

(I did not take even a single peso from the government, so I have no ghost projects. The contracts obtained by my companies are permits for private investments, using my own capital on my own land.)

Leviste also denied that a P24 billion fine was issued to Solar Philippines.

The lawmaker said that the fine was imposed on SP New Energy Corporation (SPNEC), and not Solar Philippines.

It may be recalled that Leviste sold P22.259 billion worth of SPNEC shares to Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGEN)’s renewable energy subsidiary, MGEN Renewables, from 2023 to 2025.

Aside from this, Leviste denied selling his franchise. He said the company he sold to Meralco did not have a franchise.

Earlier in January, the Department of Energy referred Leviste’s case to the Office of the Solicitor General and the Department of Justice. According to a report on 24 Oras, the DOE cancelled his firm’s contract due to supposed non-performance.—LDF, GMA Integrated News