Community leaders from Bataan and Quezon are in Bangkok to demand remedies from the World Bank for more than 120,000 Filipinos affected by coal plants it helped finance, as their complaint against the bank’s private-sector arm enters its ninth year.
Derek Cabe of the Nuclear/Coal-Free Bataan Movement and Franciene Enriquez of Kabataan para sa Kalikasan ng Atimonan are pressing the International Finance Corp. (IFC) to address the environmental and social harm linked to 10 coal plants it helped finance.
The complaint, filed with the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman by the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ), Inclusive Development International and Recourse on behalf of coal-affected communities, marks its ninth year this month.
In the Philippines, coal-affected communities from Batangas, along with PMCJ and allied groups, protested outside the World Bank office in Taguig on Monday, the opening day of the World Bank Group’s 2026 Annual Meetings, to demand action on the delayed remedies.
“We have nothing to lose anymore. Destructive projects financed by multilateral development banks such as the World Bank took almost everything from us — our livelihood, homes, lives, and future,” Mr. Cabe said.
He cited a worker’s death at a Bataan coal-fired power plant in June and called for continued efforts to secure remedies and climate justice.
Two Bataan facilities, the GNPower Dinginin coal plant and the Limay coal plant, are included in the complaint. A study by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air found that the Dinginin plant had the highest annual sulfur dioxide and mercury emissions. Its 100-meter smokestack, according to the campaigners, contributes to more concentrated emissions and increased health risks for nearby communities.
The IFC has also earned returns from investments linked to the Philippine coal industry. At an Oct. 7 press conference, PMCJ, Inclusive Development International and Recourse said the IFC and its Capitalization Fund earned an estimated $39 million in total returns from their stake in Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), a financial intermediary through which IFC funds were used to support the coal boom in the Philippines.
Although the IFC has ended its financial ties with RCBC, campaigners said divestment does not remove its responsibility to address the harm associated with the investments.
“This is personal to me. My generation’s future is on the line and depends on how we win this fight against this corrupt system that kills our environment,” Ms. Enriquez said.
She cited worker deaths at the San Buenaventura coal plant in Mauban, Quezon, and the effects of coal development on local communities. Ms. Enriquez co-founded Kabataan para sa Kalikasan ng Atimonan as a teenager. The group has campaigned against fossil fuel projects across Quezon province, including the proposed Atimonan coal-fired power plant.
The communities continue to face environmental and social risks, according to PMCJ, which cited the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman’s latest report.
“These plants have already brought failing health, destroyed ecosystems, forced displacement, lost livelihoods, and growing intimidation, and the Super El Niño will make all of it worse,” said PMCJ policy, campaigns and communications lead Elle Bartolome.
The group called on the World Bank to adopt a coordinated approach to providing remedies, saying the IFC had spent $3.5 million on studies that generated 186 recommendations to address the harm but had kept the findings confidential.
PMCJ said none of the money had gone toward implementing the recommendations or providing actual remedies, even as the IFC earned an estimated $39 million in investment returns.
“We are here to remind them that real empowerment and resilience start with giving that money back to deliver the remedies these communities have waited for nine years and to fund the planned, managed phase-out of coal plants,” Ms. Bartolome said.
“Until then, that theme is just an empty slogan,” she added. — Kaizzer Angela Marie V. Manuba