In a largely coal-dependent developing country like the Philippines, the impact of coal plants on air quality has been glossed over. Of all the fuel sources, coal emits the most hazardous fine particles per unit of energy.
Can lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic that struck the world compel the Philippine government to take action — from updating air quality standards to honoring the coal moratorium, and ultimately, transitioning to renewable energy?
Chronic exposure to polluted air made COVID more deadly
Global studies as early as 2020 show that long-term exposure to air pollution increases the risk of contracting the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and reduces the likelihood of survival, leading to premature deaths, particularly among individuals with heart conditions as comorbidities.
The 2020 Philippine Health Statistics report says the same. That is, ischemic heart disease poses significant risk for Covid-19 survival.
During the peak of the pandemic in 2020, ischemic heart disease was the leading cause of death in the country, with 105,281 cases, up by 8 percent from 2019’s 97,475 cases. It is a coronary artery disease in which the vessels carrying blood to the heart narrow, resulting in a heart attack. It dislodged heart diseases in general, which was No. 1 in 2000 and 2010.
A 2023 Elsevier study urged authorities to pay more attention to PM2.5 exposure since it “has emerged as an important yet often overlooked risk factor for ischemic heart disease” and coronary-related condition atherosclerosis.
PM2.5, or fine particulate matter, is the most toxic (coal) pollutant because it is so small that it settles deep in the lungs or enters the circulation system, harming other organs such as the heart.
The exposure levels to PM2.5 are 1.3 to 4 times higher in low- and middle-income countries like the Philippines, making air pollution the second risk factor for premature deaths including for children under five years old, according to the 2024 State of Global Air Report.
People with respiratory conditions are more prone to heart failure because their weak lungs make their heart work twice as hard to pump blood.
Regions with coal plants suffered higher COVID-19 death rates
The same Philippine Health Statistics report showed that Central Luzon (Region 3) ranked third in the country in terms of total number of deaths and sixth in terms of death rates for every 100,000 population.
Together with Metro Manila (National Capital Region) and another major coal site Calabarzon (Region 4-A), they made up 41.3 percent of the total deaths in 2020, mirroring the country’s deadliest disease.
In an ABS-CBN News interview, then Mayor Jocelyn Castañeda of Mariveles town, Bataan province, shared how comorbidities, especially heart conditions, posed a serious risk for Covid survival in the province.
In Metro Manila where air pollution mainly came from vehicles and industrial facilities, the annual air quality of its cities from 2017 to 2023 exceeded three times the World Health Organization’s guideline of 5 µg/m³ per year, a stricter threshold due to previously unaccounted air pollution deaths.
Is it any coincidence that the most Covid-19 deaths in 2020 occurred in these regions, which are also the most populated and host to coal plants in Luzon?
“Even very modest contributions to these major causes of death are likely to have large effects at the population level, given high incidence rates,” according to a 2020 Energy Geoscience report.
COVID exposes Mariveles’ wider pollution-related disease epidemic
Likewise, heart attack due to blockage of coronary arteries was the No. 1 cause of death at the Mariveles District Hospital (MDH) from 2020 to 2021, claiming the lives of seven residents. This skyrocketed to 32 deaths in 2022.
Mariveles, a third-class municipality, is host to the 632-megawatt GNPower Mariveles Energy Co. (GMEC) and its extension, the 1200-MW GNPower Dinginin (GNPD). The Aboitiz Group-owned GMEC is one of three power suppliers in the whole of Bataan province.
From 2019 to 2022, 41.75 percent of the district hospital’s patients died from coronary-related conditions, while 31 percent died from respiratory conditions.
The MDH served as the main facility for Covid patients with mild symptoms in the province of Bataan. The severe cases were transferred to Balanga City, which had the highest death rate in all cities in Central Luzon in 2020.
Respiratory conditions accounted for the majority of illnesses treated at the Mariveles hospital from 2019 to 2022 with 1,667 cases. From 2020 to 2021, Covid-19 nearly doubled the number of patients with respiratory conditions at MDH, from 405 (329 were Covid cases) to 653 (495 were Covid cases), respectively.
With a very high incidence rate increase of 35.67 per 100,000 population, Mariveles was classified as “very high risk” for Covid-19.
Medical doctor Jean Lindo said in an email that “all of the morbidities that the population has can be considered a vulnerability in itself.”
She said that whether one is asthmatic or has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, cardiovascular disease, or diabetes, one is more likely to have more attacks in the presence of a coal-fired power plant due to its multiplier effect.
Mariveles’ coal communities are particularly vulnerable
According to the Nuclear/Coal-Free Bataan Movement — a network of grassroots organizations across Bataan — the Covid-19 health crisis struck when coal-hosting communities in Limay and Mariveles towns “have already been suffering from respiratory illnesses and serious health and environmental degradation” due to “exposure to coal ash and particulates.”
The Bataan local government published on its website that coronary-related heart attacks were the province’s leading cause of death from 2012 to 2015, with an average rate of 46.82 percent and 51.93 percent, respectively.
“Because the coal plant is here, every time they transfer carbon from the ship, we clean our mirrors, but it is still there the next day. It’s like dust on the surface which you can write on,” Paulo Del Mundo said in an interview.
Del Mundo lives in the shadow of the GMEC and GNPD coal-fired power plants in Sitio Dinginin, Barangay Alas-asin, on the edge of Mariveles town by Manila Bay. By experience, air turns haziest during the southwest monsoon that brings rain over many parts of the archipelago from June to September.
His wife, Nenita, became ill during the Covid-19 pandemic, which her doctor said was caused by high levels of nicotine in her body. Nobody in the family smokes.
For nearly a year she was skin and bones, with a bloated stomach, a dire situation that prompted her to consult another doctor.
According to Lindo, Nenita’s prolonged and cumulative exposure to coal emissions, coupled with recent evidence showing that exposure to coal’s air pollutants is deadlier than those of other sources, makes health alone a reason to reject coal-fired power plants.
Sitio Dinginin fisherman and resident Henry Bunag complained how they never learned the results of regular air and water sampling done there.
Even on clear days, they have to put lids on their water containers, lest coal dust would contaminate the water. Coal dust also dries up the flowers of their fruit-bearing trees.
Before setting out to sea to fish, they have to wear bonnets to keep the polluted air from irritating their eyes, Bunag said.
The Aboitiz Group did not respond to this reporter’s requests for an interview and comment for this report.
The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) in Region 3 declined to provide the air and water testing samples that GNPower regularly produced because of “confidential business information.”
However, the EMB confirmed GNPower’s compliance with the requirement to provide funds “to cover compensation for damages caused by the project, and/or restoration of areas affected.”
The Mariveles Environment Office didn’t respond when asked how the funding was spent.
Foreign-funded coal plants drive the Philippines into debt
The operation of the Aboitiz Group-owned coal plants in Mariveles represents China’s success in penetrating the country’s energy sector during President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term from 2001 to 2010.
The GNPower Mariveles Energy Co. (GMEC) is a $1-billion power plant funded with a $493 million loan from the state-owned China Development Bank, $227 million, and $280 million investments from Denham Capital Management, among others.
It is built from the ground up by Chinese firms without the Philippine government issuing a sovereign guarantee.
According to a 2021 Elsevier study published under Energy Strategy Reviews, the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) “formed a coalition with Philippine economic elites — oligarchs, new rich, and businessmen,” that dominate the sector in the country and “had the power to constrain the opposition mobilization of Philippine politicians and social movements.”
While it benefited domestic investors and provided local revenues, this progress in the economic zone in the idyllic town has come at a cost for some of the nearly 200,000 residents, and at the same time contributed to the country’s mounting debt.
Residents living near the coal plants do not have access to long-term benefits that would provide them with social safety nets such as secure jobs and housing.
The IBON Foundation described this pattern, where foreign capital and oligarchs dominate policymaking, as “anti-national development.”
No end in sight for coal dependency
Bataan is a significant contributor to the Luzon grid, accounting for 3036 MW of total installed capacity, or 34 percent of the 8942 MW combined capacity of coal plants in Ilocos Region, Central Luzon, and Calabarzon.
With the government’s approval, “the GNPower Dinginin plant also single-handedly increased the system reserve requirement since this plant became the largest in the country at 668MW per unit,” according to Jephraim Manansala, chief data scientist of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities.
The AboitizGroup and a number of Facebook pages from Bataan that lauded China’s investment in the Philippines separately boast of this as an achievement, but doesn’t this set a precedent for other companies to follow suit given the coal moratorium’s exemption for expansions and upgrades to existing coal plants?
At the same time, it shows the government’s failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in proportion to the country’s rising annual average temperature over the past 40 years.
The archipelago remains heavily dependent on coal. From 2000 to 2023, it generated 1326 terawatt-hours (TWh) from fossil fuels, 44 percent of which came from coal.
Of the total energy mix, fossil fuel accounts for 73 percent, and clean energy for the remaining 27 percent. As of 2020, 4.2 GW remains in the pipeline.
As it is, Filipinos who already suffer from heart and respiratory conditions are at risk of heat stress due to dangerously high temperatures during the hottest months.
According to the recent bulletin from the World Meteorological Organization, the heat waves, altered rain patterns, and other extreme events spawned by climate change also affect “the formation, duration and dispersion of air pollution.”
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), in a resolution adopted early this year, reminds governments to “bear in mind’’ the most recent air quality guidelines of the World Health Organization, as well as the need for integrated governance on health and climate change since many greenhouse gases and air pollutants have common sources and affect more vulnerable people.
What makes Sitio Dinginin in Mariveles town vulnerable is that it lacks the capacity to manage exposure to air and water pollution.
“The dust? It’s itchy and can make you cough. But it’s not like we have to stay inside every time the ship transfers coal,” resident Rosario Nievales said.
Even indoors is not a safe place.
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This story was produced with the support of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network as part of the Media Action on Sustainable Infrastructure in the Philippines Project.
The following data were sourced, scraped, and analyzed for this story:
- The 2020 Philippine Health Statistics Report
- Mariveles District Hospital’s morbidity and mortality record from 2019 to 2022
- The Philippines’ power generation sources between 2000 and 2023 from the energy think-tank Ember
- The Philippines’ GDP-to-debt ratio from 2014-2022 via the International Monetary Fund
- Air quality data in NCR and Balanga City, Bataan from IQAIR
- Grid-connected power plants in the Philippines as of March 2024 from DOE
