Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC) continued its tirade against the government coal bidding rules, saying that the planned auction would ‘kill’ billions of pesos for no gain.
‘Why kill the golden goose for zero gain?’ the company said in a statement on Monday.
Over its 29 years of operations, the Consunji-led group said it has paid P70.5 billion and contributed around P600 million annually to Caluya in Antique.
Beyond government revenues, SMPC claimed its coal supply enables cheaper baseload power, with coal-fired facilities averaging P4.05 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in the Luzon-Visayas grid in September.
Its business likewise supported over 4,000 jobs. SMPC, however, has been cutting its workforce due to limited operations triggered by ‘disadvantageous DOE (Department of Energy) bidding rules.’
Since the government is leaning toward awarding the contract to the highest bidder, SMPC warned that if the winner has no mining experience, the Philippines would see zero coal production and zero royalty payments to the government.
Consequently, the company described this as ‘a complete defeat of the DOE’s objective of raising the most revenues.’
‘The bidding rules discourage industrialization. We hope the DOE realizes that its bidding rules directly contradict the sales pitch of our top officials when they go abroad to invite investors,’ it added.