President Ferdinand Marcos Jr meets with officials of Tokyo Gas Co Ltd during his official visit to Japan. First Gen Corp Chairman and CEO Federico Lopez (standing, second from left) was among the business leaders who joined the Philippine business delegation that accompanied Marcos. First Gen is a partner of Tokyo Gas. Handout
MANILA - President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Friday said the country was “going down the right path” in terms of clean energy as he lauded Japanese energy giant Tokyo Gas Co Ltd’s investment in the Philippines.
"And so we are encouraged that in view of Tokyo Gas that it is worth the investment then we feel that we are going down the right path for our country's energy mix and we are grateful for that vote of confidence that you have shown by your investment in the future of the Philippine economy, the future especially of our energy supply from liquefied natural gas (LNG)," Marcos said as quoted by the Presidential Communications Office.
Marcos met with Tokyo Gas officials led by its president and CEO Takashi Uchida during his official visit to Japan. The Japanese company is a partner of local renewable energy giant First Gen Corp in a major LNG project in Batangas. First Gen Chairman and CEO Federico Lopez was among the business leaders who were part of Marcos’ business delegation to Japan.
Marcos noted that LNG has been an important part of the country's energy mix since 2017.
"And this was even before it was decided that LNG would create this large role in our energy mix because we are very much talking about the mix between renewables and traditional at the time. But now we are here now and certainly that is the most critical part of our plans for the future," the Filipino leader added.
In November last year, Marcos said renewable sources will supply half of the Philippines' energy needs by 2040, based on the Philippines’ National Renewable Energy Program (NREP), a roadmap to achieve the clean energy goals required under the Renewable Energy Act of 2008.
Marcos said reaping the benefits of renewable energy takes time because of the amount of work needed to set up the infrastructure for these projects.
"We are generally speaking [of] 6, 7 years so even if we begin tomorrow, we still have to work 6, 7 years and the question is what do we do in the meantime? We are examining the possibility... of course take more traditional wind and solar power, geothermal, all of these. But it will take time to come into play because the infrastructure has to be put in place," the President said.
"That's why we are doing all we can to find ways to further-- to encourage extraction of LNG," he added.
First Gen and ABS-CBN Corp are part of the Lopez Group of companies. News.abs-cbn.com is the official news website of ABS-CBN.
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