'Build new power plants now or face blackouts'

MANILA, Philippines - A Pangasinan congressman warned the nation yesterday that it would face long power outages in three years unless it begins building new electricity plants now.

Rep. Marcos Cojuangco told the House appropriations committee that the country would need an additional 3,000 megawatts of electricity in three years.

However, he said no one in government seems to be worried about the “impending power crisis.”

“It alarms me. Are we going to allow it? Are we going to have IPPs (independent power producers) again, IPPs that have made electricity here the most expensive in Southeast Asia?” he asked.

He said because of frequent brownouts during the Ramos administration, the government was forced to allow private investors to build power plants “at any cost.”

He added that he was leaving to his colleagues the decision on whether the nation would return to the era of frequent brownouts.

Cojuangco is the principal author of a bill seeking to revive the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, which can supply Luzon with an additional 600 megawatts.

He said in many parts of the world, nuclear plants have been found to be a “reliable source of cheap and safe power.”

“Nuclear energy is better than fossil fuels, which destroy the environment,” he said.

Many of Cojuangco’s colleagues, including Representatives Edcel Lagman of Albay and Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro, are opposing the revival of the nuclear plant without new studies on its safety being conducted.

Lagman said a new study on the plant’s technical, economic and financial viability should be conducted.

Rodriguez warned of a “nuclear holocaust” should an accident happen if the plant’s safety is not assured.

Rizal Rep. Jack Duavit, a co-author with Cojuangco, protested Rodriguez’s use of the words “nuclear holocaust,” saying they give the impression that the proponents of the revival of the Bataan plant “are irresponsible.”

Certainly, Duavit said proponents do not want an accident to happen and are equally concerned about the plant’s safety and reliability.

Cojuangco said he would agree to a “validation” of the safety and reliability issues but not to new studies, “which imply procrastination and indecision.”

“If we cannot operate this plant, let us dismantle it and sell it for its salvage value. Let us stop spending P40 million a year for its maintenance,” he said.

During the hearing, Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia said most of his people are opposed to the operation of the plant because of unresolved safety concerns.

He said studies in the past have shown that the facility is located along an earthquake fault and that it had at least “40,000 defects.”

He said besides resolving these issues, the government, if it decides to operate the plant, must ask the people of Bataan and the public in general whether they are willing to accept nuclear energy.

Bataan Rep. Herminia Roman said her constituents in the first district are not opposed to the operation of the plant provided that they are assured of its safety.

“I will be the first one to object to its commissioning if it is not safe because Morong (where the plant is located) is in my district,” she said.