Bayan Muna deputy president Atty. Carlos Zarate denounced the sale of the 796.64 MW Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) hydroelectric power plant at the very low price of ₱36.266 billion to Aboitiz-owned Thunder Consortium.

He called this a “sweetheart deal” between Aboitiz and Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp for the selling price of only a pittance. According to the Department of Finance, the government expected to earn ₱50 billion to ₱100 billion from the privatization of the facility.

“CBK’s capacity is nearly five times that of Casecnan, but they paid an extremely low price for it. Where did the real value of the people’s asset go? Congress and the people themselves must investigate this,” Zarate explained.

Recall that the 165MW Casecnan hydroelectric power plant in Nueva Ecija was sold for ₱30 billion ($526 million) to River Lakes Corp., a subsidiary of Lopez Group’s First Gen Corp.

“Our public assets should not be handed over so easily to the oligarchs. This is the problem with privatization, and in the end it is the people who pay more, like with EPIRA and Primewater,” Zarate said.

He stated that the privatization of major public utilities has long been a pattern favoring big comprador bourgeoisie to the detriment of the Filipino people.

“Deals like this only serve to increase the stranglehold of oligarchs over our country’s energy sector, at the cost of higher electricity rates and less accountability to the public. We cannot allow the government to simply give away strategic public assets for a song.”

“We are calling for an immediate investigation to stop the sale of our key resources to big businessmen. These belong to the people, not to a few,” Zarate declared.

The CBK hydropower complex supplies more than 4% of the electricity for the whole of Luzon. In 2024, Aboitiz’s renewable energy assets reached 1,486MW. This includes 252MW of solar, 920MW of hydro, 290MW of geothermal, and 24MW of battery energy storage.