7 presidential aspirants oppose BNPP revival

Seven presidential aspirants on Monday voiced their opposition to the proposed revival of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). These include Sen. Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III (Liberal Party) and Gilberto Teodoro Jr. (Lakas-Kampi-CMD) whose cousin, Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, is the primary proponent of the plant’s rehabilitation. Cojuangco is the son of business tycoon Eduardo “Danding" Cojuangco Jr., whose family has vowed not to support Teodoro’s candidacy after he left the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) for the administration party. The elder Cojuangco was the founder of NPC. Other presidential bets who are not in favor of the BNPP revival are Sen. Richard Gordon (Bagumbayan), Sen. Jamby Madrigal (independent), Bro. Eddie Villanueva (Bangon Pilipinas), JC delos Reyes (Ang Kapatiran) and Nicanor Perlas (independent). The seven voiced their opposition at a forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents' Association of the Philippines (Focap) in Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Makati City. Only Aquino and De Los Reyes did not explain their positions. Not worth it “There's too much controversies surrounding it and it's an old structure, it’s useless throwing good money after that," Teodoro said. The former defense chief, however, said the next administration should look into the soundness of using nuclear power, noting that the United Arab Emirates signed a $25-billion contract with a Korean company to put up a power plant there. Teodoro said the government should study if nuclear power use would significantly reduce fossil fuel use, whether waste from nuclear power generation could be disposed of properly, and whether there is a suitable location in the Philippines for a new nuclear power plant. Perlas, an environmentalist, also said previous studies on the plant showed that it has many defects. Perlas was a former technical consultant to the Senate Ad Hoc committee on the BNPP and the Presidential Commission on the Philippine Nuclear Power Plant which commissioned a study of the BNPP during the administration of the late former President Corazon Aquino. “It’s going be a major mistake reviving the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant," Perlas said, but added that he was “open to debate on the role of nuclear power in Philippine society." Marcos folly Gordon said the BNPP was "decrepit" and should no longer be utilized, but added that he has not closed the door on the possible use of nuclear energy in the country. Villanueva said he was against the BNPP's revival because of the plant's "inherent defects," but likewise said he is not against the use of nuclear power provided that safety nets are in place. Madrigal, head of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources, likened the re-opening of the BNPP to paying "homage to Marcos' folly." Believing that a nuclear plant is the answer to the worldwide energy crisis in 1973, former Philippine strongman President Ferdinand Marcos ordered the BNPP's construction in 1976 at an initial cost of $600 million. When it was completed in 1984, the cost jacked up to $2.3 billion. The plant, however, was shut down in 1986 due to safety concerns including its proximity to two volcanoes, its supposed location above a fault line, and radiation that may possibly escape into the atmosphere. - KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV