No to Bataan Nuclear Power Plant

A Pastoral Statement

We join the Environmentalist Group Greenpeace and the Diocese of Balanga headed by Bishop Socrates Villegas in opposing the revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
We earnestly appeal to our Congressmen, with fervent hope and prayer that Congress will completely and irrevocably reject the opening of the nuclear plant as the most dangerous and expensive way to generate electricity. Multiple risks and the possibility of corruption outweigh dreamed benefits.

We recommend with other anti-BNPP Congressmen and the Greenpeace Forum that the mothballed facility in Morong, Bataan, be dismantled as its revival will be most hazardous to health and life of the people. It is for this reason that we also strongly oppose coal-fired power plant as source of energy in Iloilo province and in other parts of the country.

We recommend the implementation of the approved bill on the use of renewable energy, such as solar, wind and water as the safe sources of electricity.

For the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines

+ ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO, D.D.
Archbishop of Jaro & CBCP President
February 26, 2009