Bishop reaffirms opposition to Bataan Nuclear Power Plant

October 5, 2020 - 1:07 PM
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This December 19, 2011 photo from Wikimedia Commons shows Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. (Jiru27 / CC BY-SA via https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

A Catholic bishop is confident people will reject the plan to revive the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.

Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga said the diocese and Bataan officials are “united” against move to rehabilitate the mothballed BNPP.

“The voice of our people is strongly, openly no,” Santos said.

The bishop was reacting to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for dialogue with residents to see if locals would approve the plan.

Duterte has earlier created an interagency committee tasked to study the feasibility of using nuclear energy as a power source.

In opposing the project, the prelate stressed that the amount of damage that a potential nuclear accident could cause heavily outweighs its benefits.

“We know very well the real situation and condition of BNPP,” Santos said.

“Our future or our future on energy is not on BNPP. It is danger and destruction,” he said.