Narra pushes back: Palawan communities hold forum against coal, highlighting decades-long resistance

Media Communications
Jun 24
3 min read

Quezon City, Philippines — The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) joined the “Forum on No to Coal” in Narra, Palawan on June 24, 2025 to stop the construction of a long-resisted coal plant in the area.

“The Palaweños have been resisting the existing coal plant and all destructive projects in the province for over a decade,” PMCJ Luzon Coordinator Erwin Puhawan said. He added that in the first 15-MW coal-fired power plant built in the area, local communities complained that D.M. Consunji, Inc. (DMCI) failed to conduct public scoping and public hearings or provide clear science-based evidence of the coal project’s impact.

When this coal-fired power plant was first proposed in Aborlan in 2012, many were against the project and filed legal interventions and cases against DMCI. They asserted that the proposed power plant would threaten the province's biodiversity and the local residents’ health. However, in August 2023, DMCI completed the construction of the plant in Brgy. Bato-Bato, Narra, Palawan.

Another 15-MW coal-fired power plant was proposed, and the communities had long resisted it. In 2013, they successfully halted the proposed power plant. However, just recently, locals reported news about DMCI pushing this second dirty plant project again.

“Following the news of the proposed coal plant, the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC) found that several barangays, including Batang-Batang, Malinao, and Aramaywan, were not informed, and there were no prior public consultations regarding the coal project. It was also revealed that no Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) had been obtained from Indigenous communities, violating their legal and cultural rights, the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), and Presidential Decree No. 1586 on the environmental impact assessment system. For provinces like Palawan, the proposed expansion is a national emergency. The province is home to hundreds of species of flora and fauna, many of which are endemic and threatened by habitat loss and the climate crisis,” PMCJ National Coordinator Ian Rivera said.

Rivera argued that Palawan has been a designated UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve since 1990. “This is the last ecological frontier of the Philippines. This alone is enough basis for why coal plants have no place in Palawan,” Rivera added.

From 2020 to 2024, Narra lost 305 hectares of its natural forest during the construction and operation of the coal plant in Narra. One noticeable effect of Palawan's worsening climate and environmental condition is the recent flooding in the province. In February 2025, a shear line brought torrential rains to Palawan.

“DMCI’s history of steering around public opposition is obvious foul play. Worse, the company continued to build business in an ecologically sensitive and protected area despite the legal interventions and questioning of their project's process. This expansion is a deliberate act of climate injustice that disrespects the legal processes, the voices of local communities, and the planet. DMCI’s business model is based on greed and destruction,” Puhawan stressed.

Rivera highlighted the Consunji-led Semirara Mining and Power Corp. wreaking havoc in Antique, “This big corporation burns coal and is about to mine, as DOE and DENR gave nod to the environmentally-destructive project. This only proves that the government is not serious enough on just transition. In a period of climate emergency, it does not make sense why the government is still pursuing this unchanged path of allowing greater use of coal. It signals their misplaced priority on profits over the people and the planet, which falls on deaf ears among the alarms raised by communities affected by dirty and harmful projects.” ###

#SavePalawan #LabanPalawan #ClimateJusticeNow #EndCoal