Philippine politician who praised natural gas takes heat for business dealings after AP reporting

An influential Philippine governor is the subject of controversy following an Associated Press investigation into his links to the expanding natural gas industry in his province.

Articles in two leading newspapers called the connections unethical and said any wrongdoing must be corrected. An umbrella group that claims to have 150 environmental organizations as members is calling for an investigation.

The AP reported that Gov. Hermilando Mandanas of Batangas province championed a major expansion of natural gas power plants and delivery terminals while he owned almost 30% of a real estate firm known as AbaCore that planned to profit from the buildout. The company’s land values soared as energy companies moved into the busy port region and it also launched its own natural gas enterprise. Legal experts called this a conflict of interest.

Mandanas and associates did not respond to requests for comment through email, Facebook message and LinkedIn.

The Daily Tribune, a Manila newspaper, said in an editorial June 24 that the findings raised “ethical questions about Mandanas’s real estate interests and his tireless promotion of imported fuel terminals.”

“The case of Mandanas is not isolated,” the editorial said. “Such unethical practices are so brazen and too frequent that ordinary Filipinos have come to ignore them.”

Ben Kritz, a columnist at the Manila Times, the Philippines’ oldest English language newspaper, said it “is something that needs to be looked into carefully.”

Any misdeeds “must be corrected,” he wrote on June 27.

Referring to Mandanas, The City Post news website said in an editorial June 23 that it's “incumbent upon him to justify how these deals did not run afoul of ethics rules.”

The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ), and the nonprofit Center for Energy, Ecology and Development, which has campaigned against the natural gas buildout, called for a full investigation. Batangas residents are “doomed to pay for their governor’s greed with their own health and livelihood,” the PMCJ said in a statement to the Manila Times published July 2.

Mandanas should “temporarily step back from the seat of governance to allow the investigation to proceed,” the Manila Times quoted the statement as saying. The PMCJ did not respond to requests for the statement.

Mandanas’s stake in AbaCore involved a complex structure with three layers of Philippine companies, the AP found. Attorneys who specialize in local government and ethics said his ownership may violate the national law on conflict of interest. That law also requires Philippine politicians to divest from businesses that clash with their official duties within 60 days of taking office.