San Miguel
Famous for its beer, the Filipino conglomerate San Miguel is also the largest power producer in the Philippines. The company operates 4 coal power plants and still plans to build 2 more coal plants, and also has 4 gas power projects in the pipeline.
In 2020, the Philippine government put an end to coal expansion by adopting a coal moratorium. Companies could only develop expansion projects which the government had already permitted. Projects without a pre-existing permit were prohibited. This decision heavily affected San Miguel, which had proposed 74% of the prohibited projects. Still, San Miguel is pushing forward with its 2 projects that already had permits, the 700 MW Masinloc plant and the 1,200 MW Mariveles coal plant. Mariveles’ Units 1- 4 were commissioned in 2024 and 2025 with a total capacity of 600 MW.
Instead of making use of the Philippines’ huge potential for renewables, GOGEL data shows that San Miguel is planning to build 8.1 GW of new gas power plants. These will be fueled by imported LNG. Most of the LNG import terminals and one of the gas plants are located in the Verde Island Passage, a marine biodiversity hotspot within the Coral Triangle. The Verde Island Passage is home to over 300 coral species and approximately 1,736 fish species. 2 million people make a living from small-scale fishing there. San Miguel’s expansion plans are putting this paradise at risk.
San Miguel has a long track record of destruction. In February 2023, a San Miguel oil tanker sank in the Verde Island Passage. Thousands of local fishers lost their jobs overnight. The company took hardly any responsibility for the disaster. Just over a year later, another San Miguel oil tanker sank off the coast of Bataan while carrying 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil. The company’s relentless coal and gas expansion plans will make such catastrophes even likelier in the future.
NGOs working on San Miguel
