Unhappy over moratorium on coal power

By Herbert Vego

OUR friend Jonathan Cabrera, spokesman of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power), believes that we would not be experiencing the daily brownouts we are experiencing today had we built more coal-fired power plants than we have now.

Here’s what he wrote on his Facebook page: “Damo tani sadto gusto magbutang sang coal-fired power plant sa Panay island pero ginakontra nyo man! Subong, kulang ta supply.”

Jun must have remembered that in 2008, while Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) was constructing its coal-fired power plant in Barangay Ingore in La Paz, Iloilo City, “concerned environmental activists” held rallies against its rise in the belief that it could pollute our environment — hence violating the Clean Air Act.

That early, this columnist begged to disagree because there were already a number of coal-fired plants in the Philippines with no such problem, as we proved for ourselves when a few other local journalists and I visited the 1,200-megawatt coal-fired plant in Sual, Pangasinan.

Anyway, PEDC finished construction of its coal-fired power plant and began its initial commercial operations in 2011, with subsequent expansion in 2016.

Next came the coal-fired power plant of Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) in Concepcion, Iloilo, which started operating in 2016.

Many other billionaire investors could have put up a similar edifice in our region but backed out to avoid trouble with environmental activists, notably Greenpeace Philippines.

The government must have listened to the prophets of doom, as it declared a moratorium on new coal-powered plants in 2020, though previously approved projects were allowed to push through.

It is unfortunate and ironic that, as revealed by the Department of Energy (DOE) in a press release dated May 8, 2026, “The coal moratorium imposed in December 2020 continues to be fully enforced. Under the policy, no new coal power projects may secure DOE endorsements after October 2020.”

As researched, however, the Philippines today has only 32 operational coal-fired power plants, which provide roughly 44% of the country’s total electricity demand.

The largest facilities of them all are the Sual Power Plant in Pangasin