"Philippine fishing and Indigenous communities wary of clean energy boom in Marcos stronghold", 18 May 2026

… Crouched on the beach under the hot noon sun, a fisherman flattens a black sheet of seaweed on a bamboo mat rolled out on the sand. Wearing a straw hat wide enough to shade his entire body, he tucks his legs in to avoid getting burned…

However, local fishing and Indigenous communities see these projects as threats to their livelihoods, saying they’re worried they will be the ones to bear the burden of energy infrastructure development while receiving no real benefits…

… One of the projects raising concern among fishers in Pasuquin is the North Luzon offshore wind farm, dubbed BuhaWind Energy, a 350-billion-peso ($5.7 billion) joint venture between PetroGreen Energy (part of the Philippine conglomerate Yuchengco) and Denmark’s Copenhagen Energy.

… Vanessa Peralta, communications head for the BuhaWind project, tells … that the company recognizes concerns about livelihood…

… Joseph Padama, 39, chief of the Masamuyao Isneg Yapayao tribe, stands forlorn over the hills in Burgos and Bangui that were once an orchard of mango trees for his people. Today, it’s the site of a future solar farm spanning more than 200 hectares (about 500 acres), dry and dusty from construction by developer Energy Logics Development Inc (ELPI) that began in 2018without the tribe’s consent.

… Before construction began, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) declared the planned facility did not overlap with ancestral domain. The NCIP later acknowledged that there was indeed an overlap with Masamuyao land, and informed the company that it would have to seek tribal consent. By then, however, several solar panels had already been put in place.

… ELPI’s solar farm has been expanded by its sister company, Chinese firm Nanchao Renewable Energy. Nanchao began cutting 1,500 mature trees and nearly 200 saplings in October 2025 to build a solar farm in conjunction with ELPI’s facility.