Data-center law in Philippines

Presidential Decree No. 1586 (1978)

Effective 1978-06-11 · Applies to both

Section 2 establishes an Environmental Impact Statement System requiring every proposed project or undertaking of a national-government agency or instrumentality, a government-owned or controlled corporation, or a private corporation, firm, or entity that would significantly affect the quality of the environment, to submit an environmental impact statement for the National Environmental Protection Council's review.

Section 4 authorizes the President to proclaim environmentally critical areas and projects, and Section 5 exempts a project not so declared from the statement requirement, though the Council may still require additional environmental safeguards for a non-critical undertaking.

Whether a data center of a given size or location falls within a proclaimed environmentally critical project or area, and the specific categories the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' DAO 2003-30 uses to apply this System today, were not established here.

Source: Full text of law

Republic Act No. 9136 (2001), Sections 6, 31

Applies to both

Section 6 opens electricity generation to competition: upon the Act's effectivity, a new generation company must secure an Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) certificate of compliance before operating. Power generation is not itself treated as a public-utility operation, however, and a person or entity engaged in it is not required to secure a legislative franchise.

Section 31 mandates retail competition and open access on distribution wires not later than three years after the Act's effectivity, once several conditions are met. An end-user with a monthly average peak demand at or above a threshold set by the ERC (initially one megawatt, later reduced) becomes part of the contestable market, able to choose its electricity supplier rather than being bound to its franchised distribution utility.

A data center's electricity demand would typically place it, once open access is implemented in its area, in this contestable market rather than the captive retail-rate market.

Source: Full text of law

Republic Act No. 9513 (2008), Section 10

Applies to both

Section 10 entitles a distribution end-user, without discrimination and upon request, to enter into a net-metering agreement with its distribution utility for a renewable-energy system it installs, crediting the end-user for its net contribution to the grid. A large power consumer such as a data center that installs on-site renewable generation would be a distribution end-user for this purpose.

The Energy Regulatory Commission, in consultation with the National Renewable Energy Board, sets the net-metering interconnection standards and pricing methodology.

Source: Full text of law

Republic Act No. 11534 (2021)

Applies to private

The CREATE Act directs the Board of Investments, together with the Fiscal Incentives Review Board, other Investment Promotion Agencies, and the private sector, to formulate a Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP) naming the projects and activities qualified for income-tax holidays and other fiscal incentives, valid for three years and subject to periodic revision.

A registered business enterprise must be engaged in a project or activity the SIPP lists to qualify, and a project not listed is automatically disapproved. The Act's own text does not itself name a data center, cloud, or ICT-infrastructure activity as a qualified project or activity; whether the current SIPP includes one is a question about that separate, periodically revised issuance rather than about this Act, and was not established here.

Source: Full text of law