'Nuclear plant's revival beckons new wave of corruption'

MANILA, Philippines – Members of the Network Opposed to BNPP Revival fear that the planned re-commissioning of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant will spur corruption anew within the country’s corridors of power. A report from the network disclosed that while the technical concerns on the plant's site and plant safety have not yet been directly addressed by the proponents, it is not the end or be-all of talks considering BNPP's revival. “One should not neglect other aspects of equal importance: the politics and economics of the project," the network said. Recent moves to re-open the mothballed nuclear plant have also spurred debates among members of the scientific community. Touching both nuclear energy in general and the BNPP in particular, questions of safety, impacts on the environment, and efficiency have been raised. “Previous studies such as the Puno commission report in 1980 and the international group National Union of Scientists (NUS)'s finding of more than 4,000 defects in design and construction of the plant were more than enough to conclude it unsafe. The proponents on the other hand have produced not a single study except for distorted success stories of other nations' nuclear projects," the report said. According to Dr. Giovanni Tapang, chairperson of Samahan ng Nagtataguyod ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Sambayanan (Agham), BNPP has become a monument of corruption. “Given its history of overpricing and $80 million in kickbacks for Marcos and his cronies, the idea of reviving the plant to become another source of corruption is not far-fetched. Looking at the proponents involved having that crony lineage makes one shake his head in exasperation.. Looking even further, the Arroyo government set to manage the implementation on this billion-dollar project is even more problematic," Tapang said. Blaming the Arroyo government for not putting an effort to make the old proponents and corrupt beneficiaries of BNPP accountable, the anti-nuclear power network lamented that the current government cannot also be sure that there will not be a repeat of the past mistakes. “We haven't forgotten Jose Pidal, ZTE, IMPSA, Northrail corruption scandals, and many other multi-million dollar projects the likes of BNPP. The current government has no moral authority to speak of in which we can pin our hopes on," it said. BNPP's revival, without any technical or financial study backing, is reportedly being hastily raised by its proponents because “the people are the ones to be paying anyway." The bill identifies foreign borrowing and/or nuclear tax of P0.10/kwh schema to generate the initial $1billion fund. The network alleged that with P160 billion in debt already paid by the Philippine government for a plant which did not generate a single watt of electricity, the Filipino taxpayers will be paying some $1 billion more even before the plant start running, and will be paying even more once the plant goes operational as the plant will be controlled by foreign corporations. “The additional burden that the Arroyo's government imposes on the Filipino people is unacceptable. The current movement to oppose BNPP, in fact have been a gathering of old and new ones. The people then and now have fought and will continue to fight this unscrupulous project," said Tapang. - GMANews.TV