Manila (Philippine Daily Inquire/ANN) - Proponents of nuclear power in the Philippines are reversing their position following partial meltdowns at two nuclear reactors in northeast Japan as a result of an 8.9-magnitude earthquake on Friday that spawned a massive tsunami.
Albay province governor Joey Salceda said he had favored nuclear energy before because of high power rates in the country and because he had believed that the risks of nuclear energy could be managed.
"But now, the sheer fact that our country is situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire like Japan has settled the debate in my mind - no more to nuke plant," Salceda said.
Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez said the situation in Japan vindicated Catholic bishops in opposing repeated proposals either to revive the mothballed nuclear power plant in Morong, Bataan, or to develop a plant elsewhere.
"What is happening now in Japan confirmed our previous and present fears (about nuclear power plants)," Iniguez said on the sidelines of the Church's 25th celebration of National Migrants' Day in Pasay City.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III's mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, ordered the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) project mothballed in 1986 due to safety issues and irregularities that attended its funding and construction.
Early last year, the Pangasinan provincial board endorsed a proposal by then Rep. Mark Cojuangco for the province to host two nuclear power plants.
In pushing for the building of a nuclear plant in the province, Cojuangco said it would push Pangasinan's progress and lower its electricity rates.
Other nuclear power advocates made their voices heard last year after the country felt the initial symptoms of a power shortfall that could worsen in the next 50 years.
Former Sen. Manuel Roxas II, the Aquino administration's "troubleshooter", expressed interest in tapping nuclear power for the country when he was campaigning for vice president in the May 2010 elections.
Roxas said then that he would support studies on how the country could benefit from building a nuclear power plant and rehabilitating the BNPP.
But Iniguez said government officials must closely follow the developments in Japan, where a nuclear plant operator in Fukushima Daiichi was scrambling to avert meltdowns in other reactors.
"They must study and intently follow what is going on with Japan's nuclear plant now and consider what could happen if we have that kind of problem in our country," he said.
Thousands of residents living near the nuclear plant have been evacuated after the cooling system of one of the reactors was damaged by the temblor that spawned a tsunami that wiped out towns and killed hundreds of people in Japan's northeastern coast.
Rethink nuke proposal
Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said the situation in Japan should force a rethinking of the nuclear proposal.
"While there is a need to address the issue of power supply, the safety considerations should be paramount and should not be compromised," he said.
Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez said the damage on the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant would serve as a strong argument against the activation of the BNPP.
The House committee on energy is set to tackle a proposal by Pangasinan Rep. Kimi Cojuangco to conduct a validation process that would determine whether the Philippines should go nuclear in its search for additional power supply.
Asked what Malacanang (central government) thought of proposals for the country to go nuclear, President Aquino's deputy spokesperson, Abigail Valte, Sunday said it was better to look at proposals for alternative fuels that were "less controversial and with less opposition". With a report from Christine O. Avendano
