In his first speech as president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. claimed anew that he built the windmills in his home province Ilocos Norte. This has been fact-checked repeatedly. They were built by private companies.
“Blades have been turning over the sand dunes of Ilocos Norte, harnessing a power all around but unseen long before this day. I built them,” Marcos Jr. said in his inaugural address.
Marcos’s presidential campaign also capitalized on this narrative. One of his ads with then-running mate and now Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio was set against the backdrop of the windmills in Ilocos Norte, serving as a metaphor for development.
However, the Bangui Bay Wind Power Project was a project of private firm NorthWind Power Development Corp. and received funding from the World Bank.
The Caparispisan Wind Farm, also known as the North Luzon Renewables Wind Farm, was a joint venture of AC Energy, UPC Philippines, Mitsubishi Corporation’s Diamond Generating Asia, and the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure Fund.
The Burgos Wind Project, meanwhile, is owned and operated by the EDC Burgos Wind Power Corp., a subsidiary of Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp. and First Gen Corp. END