Church leaders and residents from Atimonan, Quezon province on Monday filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against Department of Energy Secretary Sharon Garin for approving the 1,200-megawatt (MW) Atimonan One Energy Inc. (A1E) coal-fired power plant project.

“No one is interested in investing in the construction of coal plants anymore, as their era has passed. Even the past DoE leadership has given up on it. DoE Secretary Garin has created a mess, and now she has to face the consequences,” Fr. Warren Puno said.

The case filed before the Office of the Ombudsman accuses Garin of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019), as well as committing grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

The complainants charged Garin with unlawfully allowing the Atimonan coal plant project to proceed despite the coal moratorium, even though it did not fall under any of the exemptions, thereby risking serious harm to local communities and the environment.

The group claimed that in 2020, the DoE issued a coal moratorium halting the development of new coal-fired power plant projects. However, in July 2025, Garin exempted the Atimonan coal plant project from the moratorium even though it allegedly did not meet the requirements for exemption.

“Secretary Garin clearly violated her own department’s coal moratorium when she conveniently greenlighted the Atimonan coal plant despite DoE’s previous decision to bar the long-stalled project due to the existing ban,” Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) chief legal counsel Aaron Pedrosa said.

“Her approval bears the hallmarks of corruption by accommodating a project to the point of breaking existing regulations,” he added.

Pedrosa emphasized that even the DoE’s 14 October 2025 advisory, which expanded the exemptions to the coal moratorium, cannot justify the Atimonan coal plant project.

He averred that the project violates the Department of Health–Department of the Interior and Local Government Joint Administrative Order No. 2021-0001, also known as the “Guidelines for the Operationalization of the Health Impact Assessment Review Process for Development Projects.”

This as the project proponent has yet to submit an application for a Health Impact Clearance Certificate, said Pedrosa.

The groups urged the Office of the Ombudsman to promptly act on the case to deter public officials from extending undue advantage to projects that may harm public welfare.