System operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is asking the Department of Energy (DOE) to eliminate from its certified list of system impact study (SIS) applicants that are being tagged as "pseudo investors" or "non-serious project proponents" to facilitate permitting process for grid connection. “We are communicating with the DOE on how to weed out those who aren’t serious players… we hope that only serious players are forwarded to us,” NGCP Assistant Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications Cynthia P. Alabanza told reporters during a press briefing. Investors in the renewable energy (RE) space constantly bewailed that one of their major headaches on project implementation is the stretched timeframe in the approval of their SIS applications with the grid operator. That permitting process alone could take 18 months to more than two years. The NGCP executive indicated that on this particular concern, “We are doing our best and improving SIS,” adding that at this stage,  “there is downtrend on SIS conversion to projects.” The credible investors, especially the foreign companies, are similarly complaining that the RE sector in the Philippines is turning out to be a "dumping ground" for “phoney investors”. These pseudo investors range from rowdy consultants looking for work; law firms without properly representing their client-investors; as well as dummy of politicians who are selling their properties to solar farm developers. The others are individuals and entities that are adept with "greenwashing strategies" by packaging their image via online platforms to be supposedly pursuing RE investments, but in reality, they lack track record or experience on actual development of projects. Typically, these entities will present themselves as investors and they will go up to the extent of securing service contracts from the DOE; and will also work on several stages of permitting for their targeted RE projects. However, they do not have the requisite technical expertise and financial resources to really develop the projects, as they are just there to make ‘quick profit’ out of the service contracts they secured from the DOE. They would also a put value on the pace of permitting they already accomplished for the project. According to well-entrenched players in the RE sector, the typical game plan of "pseudo investors" is to sell their DOE-awarded service contracts to unsuspecting foreign companies, mainly those that are not familiar with the terrain of energy investments in the country. Such scheme is adversely impacting the serious sponsor-firms with time-bound project completions because the long line for grid connection applications could contribute to project delays. During a deliberation on the green energy auction reserve (GEAR) prices at the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC),  an organization of RE project developers also raised question on whether or not a company which is just pooling land resources for solar farm ventures be seriously considered as RE investor.