Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri said on Tuesday, July 26 that his mind has opened up to the possibility of agreeing to a nuclear energy program for the Philippines.
Zubiri issued the statement during an interpellation at the Senate session hall by Senator Francis Tolentino of Senator Loren Legarda after she delivered a privilege speech on climate change.
Legarda impressed upon her colleagues that ‘’We are obviously living in challenging times of climatic changes that are unparalleled over thousands to millions of years.’’
‘’The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) has warned us that today’s temperatures are at the highest in 125,000 years. We are now at the point of no return in our battle against climate change,’’ she said.
Zubiri said he once was like Legarda, when he initially was not in favor of nuclear energy ‘’but the more I travelled, the more I met people from nuclear energy industry, my mind has opened to the possibility of agreeing to it myself".
‘’Because apparently in the Southeast Asian nation countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and I believe Malaysia are going nuclear energy baka mahuli tayo (we might be left behind) and if we want to achieve eight percent growth rate, we need robust energy,’’ he stressed.
in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. reckoned that it is time to re-examine the country’s strategy toward building nuclear power plants in the Philippines.
‘’We will comply of course with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regulations for nuclear power plants as they have been strengthened after Fukushima. In the area of nuclear power, there have been new technologies developed that allow smaller scale modular nuclear plants and other derivations thereof,’’ Marcos said.
Tolentino said the President showed his great interest to revive nuclear energy.
He said he was not referring to the Westinghouse plant built by Marcos’s father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., ‘’but his notion now is that nuclear energy will provide greater means of support in uplifting the lives of countrymen. Will you agree nuclear energy is clean energy?’’ Tolentino asked Legarda.
Legarda answered that while she may not be an expert in nuclear energy, she remains open to hearing discussions and consultaitons with stakeholders and experts.
Tolentino said he is 100 percent in favor of nuclear energy ‘’and from my readings, i glanced accounts that nuclear energy is zero emission, meaning it wont contribute an iota of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere".
‘’Ako non scientist, from my readings nuclear generated electricity saves atmosphere more than 470 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, that is equivalent to removing 100million cars from our streets. Ano pa ililinis nito, wala nang usok mula diesel and gasolina, naka save pa ng gasolina (What more will you clean, there are no emissions from diesel and gasoline and we save from gasoline),’’ he added.
Tolentino said nuclear energy produces the least green house emissions, is four times less toxic than solar energy, and accounts for 10 percent of the world’s electricity.