The Diocese of Iligan of the Catholic Church firmly opposes plans to privatize the Agus-Pulangi Hydroelectric Complex (APHC). The church states that selling the facility to private corporations will raise electricity prices and further burden the people of Mindanao.
Bishop Jose Rapadas III’s May 10 pastoral letter emphasized that while the diocese supports rehabilitating and modernizing the facility, it must remain under public ownership and management.
“We firmly oppose any step toward privatization—direct or indirect—of Agus-Pulangi,” Rapadas declared.
The bishop also rejected proposals for public-private partnership (PPP) or similar agreements that could give control to giant companies prioritizing profit. He described the hydroelectric complex as a vital national resource built from Filipinos’ taxes and sacrifices.
Rapadas insisted that Agus-Pulangi’s current operational problems stem from policy and investment failures, not the government’s inability to manage it.
“Basic services like electricity… must be managed to serve the common good, not private profit,” he said.
He warned that treating electricity as a commodity instead of a service will hit the poor first. “When basic needs are treated as commodities, the poor suffer first and most,” he said.
Beyond this, many parts of the complex lie within Lumad ancestral lands, whose people truly own the resources.
APHC ranks as one of the Philippines’ largest hydropower systems. It consists of seven run-of-river hydroelectric plants—six on the Agus River from Lake Lanao and one on the Pulangi River in Bukidnon. It has capacity to generate around 1,000 megawatts (MW) and supply electricity to 3.3 million households in Mindanao. But the state’s neglect allows it to generate only 600–700 MW.
The Marcos regime pushes to privatize the complex under World Bank pressure. Currently, proposals for it already circulate under the PPP framework.
