SEMIRARA Mining and Power Corp. on Wednesday said the revised bidding rules for the 2026 coal auction proposed by the Department of Energy (DOE) were unfair and not acceptable to the company.
The mining firm said the new bidding rules require current or prospective mine operators to surrender or transfer ownership of their existing mining assets to participate in the auction.
“We are the only company covered by this rule. This is unfair and basically bars us from bidding,” Semirara said in a statement.
“To require us to surrender ownership of our assets as a condition to bid is against Presidential Decree 972, which clearly says that such assets are ours, and we can remove them within one year from the expiration of our operating contract,” it added.
Semirara also argued that the highest financial bid being the sole factor to determine the awarding of the contract was not ideal as it did not take into account the expertise needed to operate the coal mine.
“The shift to the highest bidder from the most capable mining outfit as the main award criterion early this year is puzzling, because nobody stands to benefit from the new bid rules except the potential winner, which only has to submit a financial bid to win,” the company said.
“Semirara is no ordinary mine. We are mining in the sea, deeper than the height of the highest building in Makati. We have to pump out the equivalent of 12 Olympic-size swimming pools or Pasig River’s torrent every hour just to get to the coal,” the company explained.
It warned that the end result if the revised bid rules are followed “is zero coal production, when another outfit takes over in July next year and that means zero royalty payment to the government, which defeats the very objective of the bidding to raise as much funds for the government.”
The company said that from 2021 to the first half of 2026, it paid P43.4 billion in government share and taxes amounting to P3.7 billion.
At the moment, Semirara said it was studying all its options to protect its legal interests.
Energy Secretary Sharon Garin, meanwhile, said the coal auction would definitely be held by this year.
“Semirara is scheduled to be [bid] out this year; I think it’s in November or early December. The coal will still be there, whether the contract expires or not, and the current one is up to the middle of 2027,” she said.
Amid the issues surrounding the auction, Garin noted that 95 percent of the country’s coal was imported and that the DOE was in constant talks with major coal exporter Indonesia to ensure a steady supply.
Semirara Mining shares on Wednesday dropped P0.42, or 3.2 percent, to P12.70 apiece amid a 1.05-percent rise for the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index.
