THE Department of Energy (DOE) has terminated the competitive bidding on coal production and development, including the controversial blocks on Semirara Island, following alarming concerns raised by affected stakeholders.
The 2026 coal bid round covering three pre-determined areas in Antique, Cagayan, and Isabela, offered for development and production coal operating contracts (DP COCs) under the Philippine Conventional Energy Contracting Program (PCEP) was met with heavy resistance stemming from legal, technical, financial concerns.
‘The concerns raised by stakeholders during the pre-submission conferences, developments affecting Semirara Island-one of the offered areas-including continuing water seepage, and certain legal considerations warrant a reassessment of the evaluation criteria applicable to the award of DP COCs for the offered areas,’ the DOE advisory dated September 15 stated.
Consunji-led Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC) currently holds coal operating contract (COC) no. 5, which is among the coal blocks on Semirara Island that will be auctioned. The COC is valid until July 14, 2027.
SMPC is the country’s largest coal producer, accounting for more than 90 percent of domestic coal production.
Under the draft joint administrative order (JAO) between the DOE and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the financial offer shall be the sole ranking factor in determining the winning bid. The concerned parties, however, raised PD 972 Section 8 which prescribes qualification criteria for operators-technical capability, financial capacity, and experience.
The JAO was intended to serve as the framework for the coal bid round. However, stakeholders argued that a framework reducing technical and experiential qualifications to a mere pass/fail metric-while ranking winners solely on their financial offers-does not conform to, and effectively amends, the qualifications-based selection framework mandated by PD 972.
SMPC earlier petitioned a Makati court for protection against the DOE from sharing the company’s detailed list of assets and propriety information with interested bidders.
SMPC argued that since it owns these assets by virtue of its COC and the Coal Development Act (PD 972), these assets will not be made available for the use of other bidders and should therefore not be considered in their bid submissions.
As of press time, the DOE has yet to reply when asked if it will pursue another bid round after it stated in the notice that ‘the termination will provide the opportunity to review and further develop a fair, equitable, transparent, and comprehensive evaluation framework for the award of COCs involving areas with confirmed or established reserves.’