House bill to revive Bataan nuke plant filed anew

MANILA, Philippines—Refusing to die, the bill to revive the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) has been filed anew in the House of Representatives.

And from former congressman Mark Cojuangco, another member of the clan is taking the cudgels of making the bill pass into law in the 15th Congress.

“I really believe this is the only way we can alleviate poverty,” Pangasinan Representative Kimi Cojuangco told reporters Tuesday after filing House Bill 1291.

Cojuangco replaced his husband, Mark Cojuangco, who first filed the bill in the 14th Congress.

The bill reached plenary in the last Congress, but failed to pass due to lengthy debates.

The Cojuangcos, which owns San Miguel Corporation, have begun divesting from the food business to invest in the power sector.

To make it “more palatable” to the bill’s critics, Cojuangco said she amended the bill to include a “validation process” using internationally-accepted nuclear power industry norms to determine if the mothballed plant in Morong, Bataan could be rehabilitated for commercial use to address the looming power crisis in the country.

“This time we are insisting that there should be a validation first to make sure it’s safe and when there’s validation then we can proceed,” Cojuangco said.

The bill allots P100 million for the two-stage validation process that will be undertaken by the National Power Corporation (Napocor).

The Napocor will release either a “Go” or “No Go” finding based on its study.

The provision on the validation was pushed by opponents of the bill, led by Albay Representative Edcel Lagman, during committee hearings in the last Congress to ensure the safety and viability of the plant’s operation before it is rehabilitated.

If found that the plant can be rehabilitated, the bill said that the President, upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Energy, is authorized to determine and decide the final mode of commissioning and commercial operation of the plant.

The bill estimates that rehabilitating the plant could cost $1 billion, to be sourced from the government and the private sector.

Private sector participation in the operation of the plant is limited to 20 percent of the total ownership, according to the bill.

The bill also said that the public through the government may preserve ownership of the plant through the collection of a surcharge of P0.15 per kilowatthour from the electricity bill of consumers for five years. The funds collected will be reimbursed to the electric consumers upon the commercial operation of the plant on a monthly basis not exceeding four years.

The power plant was built by the Marcos regime in response to the Middle East oil embargo in the 1970s.

The $2.3-billion project, designed to generate 621 megawatts of electricity, was scrapped by the Aquino administration in 1986.

Several lawmakers, environmental groups and the Church led by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines have thrown their weight behind the bill, saying reviving it would be the most dangerous and expensive way of generating electricity. –Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, INQUIRER.net