Bad omen for Semirara Mining

By Herbert Vego

THE way I read the signs of the times, Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC) has given a reason why its contract with the Department of Energy (DOE) over coal mining on Semirara Island in Caluya, Antique, should not be renewed.

That reason is the landslide at its Narra pit that killed 48-year-old bulldozer operator Ronilo Purgatorio last Sunday, March 1.

As reported by Rjay Zuriaga Castor in this paper yesterday, it happened following a landslide in the open-pit mine, burying the victim and the bulldozer.

The accident happened at a time when SMPC was hoping to rebid for renewal of its 13-year government contract that will expire on July 11, 2027.

Based on reliable information, the DOE bidding had already transpired as scheduled on Feb. 27, 2026.
Billionaire Manuel V. Pangilinan (MVP) was reported to have participated.

As to who bagged the auction, it remains to be seen.

The latest Semirara accident, I am sure, will spark “people power” against extension of the SMPC 13-year franchise.

In that event, the mining company could be pressured to quit sooner rather than later.
To reiterate, its ongoing contract is set to expire on July 11, 2027, yet.

To quote the late Spanish philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

You see, SMPC had previously been controversial because of two landslides in its open-pit mine that buried 14 miners alive in February 2013 and July 2015.

The area, which holds an estimated 160 million metric tons, has been managed for 50 years by SMPC, a unit of the Consunji family’s DMCI Holdings Inc.

Semirara is the country’s largest coal mine, accounting for about 97% of domestic coal output.

SMPC reported a net income of PHP 9.9 billion in 2025, unfortunately down 37% from PHP 15.7 billion in 2024.

Unknown to many in the power industry, Semirara coal extraction began in 1940, 86 years ago, when President Manuel Luis Quezon signed Proclamation No. 648 “establishing as coal mining reservations all the coal deposits and coal-bearing lands in the southeastern portion of the province and island of Mindoro, and the islands of Semirara, Sibay and Caluya in Antique.”

Semirara, a 55-square-kilometer island barangay of the town of Caluya (a separate island), is very isolated from the mainland of Antique province.

Sailing by motorized boat from the port of Libertad town to the mine site would take four hours.
The state-owned Semirara Coal Corp. (SCC) ran the coal mine until 1997, when DMCI Holdings took over.

-oOo-

6 YEARS WITH MORE POWER

PARANG kahapon lamang.

It has been six years since Feb. 14, 2019, when former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11212, which granted MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) a 25-year franchise to operate the electric distribution system in Iloilo City.

Under the leadership of President and CEO Roel Castro, the customer base of MORE Power has grown from 62,000 to 105,000 customers.

Castro has just arrived from San Diego, California, where he attended the Distribution Technology Conference and Exhibit (DTECH), aimed at looking beyond traditional electricity distribution.

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) hosted the conference, which highlighted improved protection systems, such as preventing solar systems from feeding power into lines during outages.

“Customers are no longer just consumers of electricity,” he told the media.

“They are becoming ‘prosumers’ — people who both use and generate power, such as households with rooftop solar panels.”

The insights learned could help shape local frameworks as more Filipinos adopt solar energy, electric vehicles, and other new technologies.