DOE official meets PE2 members, stresses need for sectoral collab to grow EEC
PE2 welcomes 6 new members, 4 new trustees in well-attended GMM
MAKATI CITY, 11 November 2025 – Representing Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Sharon S. Garin, Undersecretary Mario C. Marasigan joined the officers, trustees and members of the Philippine Energy Efficiency Alliance (PE2) as it convened the second semi-annual General Membership Meeting (GMM) today at the Dusit Thani Manila hotel with 100% of regular members represented.
In his inspirational remarks before PE2 members, Usec. Marasigan, who now oversees the Energy Utilization Management Bureau (EUMB), said, “The real imperative for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EEC) law is for all sectors to collaborate. Energy efficiency technologies and services are deployed because [energy service companies] ESCOs, solutions providers, investors and end-users work together.”
During the GMM, the Alliance welcomed six new regular member companies: Solar Systems Philippines, Inc, Coat Zone Manila Airconditioning Systems Services, Nativ Techniks Inc, EEI Power Corporation, Blunomy Advisory Singapore Pte Ltd and ZMG Ward Howell Inc. The general membership likewise elected and welcomed four (4) new Trustees to serve the PE2 Board. They were: William Alcantara (Vega Energy Services), Richard Henrick I. Beltran (Villaraza & Angangco), Jherald N. Casipit (AdventEnergy), and, Renato V. Navarrete (Certification International Philippines).
PE2 president Alexander Ablaza told the general membership that the Alliance maintains its original position that energy efficiency investments should be classified as a Tier 3 domestic market activity under the CREATE MORE framework. PE2 explains that several long-term ESCO performance contracts or energy-as-a-service agreements would remain in net operating loss during the income tax holiday periods under the Tier 1 and Tier 2 classifications. PE2 remains puzzled why energy efficiency is treated initially as Tier 1 activity while the 2022 Strategic Investment Priority Plan (2022 SIPP) approved by the President through Memorandum Order no. 61 on 24 May 2022. PE2 explained that ESCO and third-party project developer (TPPD) investments oftentimes need financial close within a tight 30–90-day period, leaving almost no time to secure a DOE endorsement and BOI registration of an energy efficiency project. PE2 needs investment promotion agencies (IPAs) such as the Board of Investments (BOI) to study how to enable registration of an energy efficiency project within the first 15% of its contract duration (post-commencement of project operations).
Ablaza was nonetheless pleased to report that, during PE2’s very productive meeting with Sec. Garin on 14 September 2025, Sec. Garin offered to officially request the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) to reclassify energy efficiency projects as a Tier 3 domestic market activity. During that same high-level DOE-PE2 meeting, Dir. Patrick Aquino said that it was legally possible for energy efficiency projects to secure DOE endorsement for fiscal incentives even after project operations have commenced.
Other highlights of the President’s Report included PE2’s proposed collaborations with Unilab Education (UniEd), the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), the Korea Smart Grid Association (KSGA) and its active support to energy efficiency events of BOI and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI).
With the new Trustees in participation, the GMM was followed by a special meeting of the PE2 Board of Trustees, which received the reports from vice president for internal affairs Ruth Yu-Owen, vice president for external affairs Theresa Acedillo-Lapuz, vice president for technical affairs Raymond A. Marquez corporate secretary Atty. Richard Henrick I. Beltran and treasurer Ireen Go-Catane. The Board approved the Financial Statement for the fiscal year that ended on 30 September 2025 and the proposed budget for the succeeding fiscal year.
The GMM was capped by a networking event where DOE Usec. Marasigan met the PE2 leadership and member representatives. The networking event was supported by PE2 regular member iONTEK Power Solutions Corporation.
