Powering the Future: The Women Leading MGEN’s Energy Transformation

There’s a quiet revolution happening in Philippine energy — and it’s being powered, in part, by women who simply refused to wait for permission.

At Meralco PowerGen Corporation (MGEN), women are no longer just entering a male-dominated industry. They’re running control rooms, managing solar plants, and shaping the legal frameworks that will carry the country’s energy sector into the future. Their paths are different, their roles distinct — but the thread running through each of their stories is the same: showing up, earning trust, and building something that lasts.

Here are three of them.

The Woman Keeping the Lights On

Engr. Cristine Albarando
MGEN Thermal Cebu Control Room Engineer

Every shift starts the same way for Engr. Cristine Albarando arrives 20 to 30 minutes early, catches up with her team, and is already inside the control room ten minutes before she’s even required to be there. It’s a quiet habit that says a lot about who she is.

As the lone female control room engineer across MGEN Thermal’s Cebu site, Cristine carries a responsibility that she didn’t fully grasp until she was already in it. Engineering wasn’t her original plan — it was her father who nudged her toward mechanical engineering. The weight of the work came later, once she understood what was at stake every single day.

Her shift is a constant rhythm of coordination: toolbox meetings, DCS monitor checks, system reviews, logbook walkthroughs, and non-stop communication with maintenance and operations. One missed detail can cascade. She doesn’t let details slip.

“Initially I had doubts because I deeply respected the weight of the responsibility,” she shares. “But because of management’s trust and support, and the encouragement from my colleagues, I have learned to accept my role. A woman who used to have fear and doubts is now a woman with pride and confidence.”

What grounds her, she says, is knowing that her work, every hour of every shift, helps keep the lights on for Filipino families across the region. From the smallest homes to the biggest hospitals. That’s not a small thing to carry. For Cristine, it’s everything.

Leading Before the Sun Peaks

Engr. Jennylene Baluyot
MGEN Renewables Bulacan Solar Site Manager

Jennylene Baluyot’s mornings begin with numbers. Generation versus target. Alarm logs. Inverter status. Anything carried over from the night shift. Then she heads out onto the plant floor. Not because the system told her to, but because she knows that a quick walk can tell you things the data can’t.

As Site Manager of MGEN’s Bulacan Solar Plant, Jennylene leads one of the country’s major renewable energy facilities. It’s a role she earned in an industry where she was often the only woman in the room. And where she learned early that proving herself wasn’t a one-time event.

The pressure is real. When a significant portion of the plant went offline during peak solar hours due to an inverter issue, there was no time to deliberate. She made the call: isolate the affected section, restore what could be brought back online, assign clear roles across the team. Fast — but controlled.

“Leadership under pressure isn’t about having all the answers instantly,” she reflects. “It’s about staying calm, making informed decisions with the data you have, and trusting your team.”

Over time, what she’s built isn’t just a career — it’s a proof of concept. “Being a woman leading an entire plant means breaking expectations, both my own and those set by the industry. There’s also proving that leadership is defined by capability, not gender.”

The Strategy Behind the Operations

Atty. Maan Ballesteros
MGEN Chief Legal Counsel and Corporate Governance & Compliance Officer

While engineers keep the plants running, Atty. Maan Ballesteros is building the foundations that make it all legally and strategically possible.

Her work spans contracts, regulatory strategy, and corporate governance across MGEN’s entire portfolio — thermal, natural gas, and renewables. It sits at the intersection of business, policy, and risk. Also, it requires a kind of thinking that goes well beyond the courtroom.

Medicine was the expectation growing up. She chose differently. Now her decisions shape how one of the country’s most significant energy companies moves forward.

“Legal strategy doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and is rarely purely legal in nature,” she explains. “It means knowing when to ask for help, who to ask, being open to different perspectives, and being aware of others’ strengths.”

Being a woman, she says, has quietly become one of her greatest professional assets — sharpening her ability to listen carefully, ask the right questions, and read a room beyond what’s on the surface. Perceived disadvantages, she’s found, have a way of becoming unexpected strengths when you lean into them.

Her advice is characteristically direct: “Creativity has no gender. Humility has no gender. Persistence has no gender. Protect your self-worth — and from that, you can achieve anything.”

What They’re Building Together

None of these women see their roles as simply personal achievements. Each of them understands that their presence in this industry sends a message — one that the next generation of Filipino women in engineering, energy, and law will receive whether they intend it or not.

Engr. Albarando puts it plainly: “To any girl who thinks this world wasn’t made for her — this world wasn’t made for you. It was waiting for you to redesign it. Step in, take up space, and remember that by building your career here, you are lighting the path for every girl who will come after you.”

Engr. Baluyot hopes younger women see that they don’t have to wait for a seat at the table. “They can lead, they can excel, and they can belong in this field — and they can do it in their own way, bringing their unique strengths with them.”

And Atty. Ballesteros, as always, keeps it grounded in something bigger than any one career: the belief that when women are empowered to lead well, the whole industry moves forward with them.

Together, these three are doing more than keeping MGEN’s operations running. They’re expanding what’s possible — for the company, for the energy sector, and for every young Filipino woman who’s watching to see if there’s space for her, too.

There is. These women made sure of it.