Leandro Leviste, Sen. Loren Legarda’s son, is making a big pile on his solar energy projects and forging ahead in his bid to invest P5-billion for boost the economy in rural Batangas. He will soon be the head honcho of Roxas & Co., Inc. (RCI), which recently shut down the Central Azucarera de Don Pedro (CADP) in Nasugbu, Batangas and terminated all its mill workers on 29 March 2024.
Leviste is now the biggest stockholder of RCI with 7.55% of RCI equity. He purchased 188.89 million shares of RCI worth P425 million based on RCI’s share price of P2.25 as of Mar. 19. As RCI’s biggest stockholder, Leviste will now have a big say on what to do with the 97-year-old CADP, which axed more than 13,000 farmers and sugar mill workers despite being the only sugar refiner in Luzon.
Leandro Leviste (Photo from inquirer.net)
The young executive may not be pleased to know that CADP blamed the Marcos Jr. government for the shutdown, claiming that the company’s request to import raw cane for refining was rejected. With no local raw cane to refine, the sugar mill had to close shop even as importers close to the corridors of power continue buying foreign refined sugar.
Moreover, more than 50,000 farmers in Nasugbu are protesting a recent Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) order concerning more than 2,941 hectares of land in RCI’s Haciendas Palico, Banilad and Caylaway. The farmers were gobsmacked when DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella awarded only 1,322 hectares to them while gifting RCI with 1,619 hectares, saying their counsel betrayed them by agreeing to the DAR’s tack to decide on the 40-year litigation of the Nasugbu CARP case. A new counsel has appealed for the junking of the Estrella order.
With RCI assured of control over a large estate, Leviste can transform the plantation into a solar energy facility that covers an estimated 500 hectares. Yet, farmers are telling Leviste not to wax sanguine over his project, said to be the world’s biggest, as they filed a motion for reconsideration and a petition for revocation on the DAR order. They argued that the areas earmarked for them are in the uplands and bereft of water and electricity.
To appease the rebellion of the Nasugbu farmers, Leviste’s Countryside Investments Holdings Corp. (CIHC) announced last week that it plans to invest P5 billion to energy, industrial and commercial projects. Leviste said the investment would help promote sustainable development and shared prosperity in Batangas, which sounds a lot about the mantra of Xi Jinping in China.
Despite the many problems hobbling solar energy generation, from dependence on China for solar panels, to the feed-in tariff and higher production cost, the need for more efficient batteries and the disposition of waste, solar energy proponents are pushing on.
RCI, as well as the government through the DAR, should see to it that the displaced farmers and farm workers are not left to their own devices after an unjust decision uprooted them from their farms and lost their chance to enrich the small land that they till. It is time for Leviste to show what shared prosperity means in practice. (DEO MAGNO)