MANILA (UCAN): Environment and Church groups in the Philippines expressed concern after the country’s president, Rodrigo Duterte, ordered the country’s energy department to revive a nuclear power plant built by the late dictorator and strongman, Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Duterte said on March 3 that the move was to lessen the country’s dependence on coal, which contributes 57 per cent of the country’s power.
“The energy department is hereby mandated to develop and implement the nuclear energy programme as part of the Philippine Energy Plan by utilizing the nuclear power plant,” he said in an executive order.
The facility in question is the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in Bataan province, central Luzon. It was built in the 1980s at a cost of US$2.2 billion [$17,19 billion] to generate 623 megawatts of electricity. It was never commissioned, however, because of anti-nuclear protests.
The project was criticised for being a potential threat to public health, especially since the plant was in an earthquake zone near a volcano.
Duterte said reopening the power plant would be a milestone for the country, which is suffering from power shortages and high electricity prices.
In 2020 alone, we had two 6.6-magnitude earthquakes. We had 14 earthquakes with a magnitude of five or higher in that year alone. We are exposing ourselves to the danger of having a nuclear explosion
“It is a viable alternative baseload power source as the country is looking to do away with coal plants to lessen our carbon emission, consistent with our crusade against global warming,” Duterte told reporters.
The energy department said adopting nuclear power see the country utilising a “mixture” of energy resources.
The Green Church Coalition noted that “In 2020 alone, we had two 6.6-magnitude earthquakes. We had 14 earthquakes with a magnitude of five or higher in that year alone. We are exposing ourselves to the danger of having a nuclear explosion.”
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The group, which has been campaigning for cleaner environment, said Duterte should instead enforce The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling regarding Manila’s territorial claims of the part of the South China Sea that Filipinos call the West Philippine Sea.
In 2016, the court ruled in favour of the Philippines, invalidating China’s territorial claims but Duterte claimed the ruling was a “mere scrap of paper.”
Coalition member, Gerard Delgado, pointed out: “Islands located in the West Philippine Sea are rich in natural oil and gas. President Duterte should enforce the ruling so that we can utilize our natural resources there. The energy sources in the West Philippine Sea are sufficient to give us energy.”
The Philippine Energy secretary, Alfonso Cusi, claimed it was time for Filipinos to see an investment return on the billion-dollar nuclear project that has remained idle for decades.
“We have already completed a pre-feasibility study on the viability of introducing nuclear power into the energy mix, where coal accounts for a significant share,” Cusi said.
