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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Visayas devider Group opposes Antique as potential nuclear power plant site

Group opposes Antique as potential nuclear power plant site

Published Oct 7, 2025 10:26 am
SEMIRARA Island, one of the country’s coal mining reservations. (Tara Yap)
SEMIRARA Island, one of the country’s coal mining reservations. (Tara Yap)
ILOILO CITY — A group opposed the inclusion of Antique province as one of the new potential sites for a nuclear power plant in the country.
“We strongly oppose and condemn the reported inclusion of the province of Antique — particularly Semirara Island —as a potential site for a nuclear power plant,” said Amlig Antique Alliance in a statement on Monday, Oct. 6.
Warning that it might be a “disaster waiting to happen," Amlig Antique Alliance urged the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) to “immediately strike Antique from any list of potential nuclear power plant sites."
“This reckless proposal adds another layer of injustice to a province already reeling from environmental destruction and corporate greed. From mountains bulldozed for roads to coastlines ravaged by ill-planned projects,” the group that earlier this year urged a 50-year mining ban, pointed out.
The group raised the alarm as Antique is one of the areas in the country reportedly cleared by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology as a possible site for a nuclear power plant.
”Antique is sandwiched between three major tectonic threats: The Negros Trench, the Palawan-Central Philippine Collision Zone to the west, and the West Panay Fault to the east, all capable of generating destructive earthquakes and tsunamis,” the group said.
The group said that the epicenter of one of the country’s strongest recorded earthquakes -- the magnitude-8.2 January 1948 Lady Caycay tremor -- was in two towns of the province, Anini-y and Dao (now Tobias Fornier).
“A magnitude-4.3 quake rattled Antique just a few days ago — a stark reminder that our land is in constant, violent motion,” the group added.
As for Semirara Island in the island town of Caluya, the group emphasized it sits near the Negros Trench and is already a site of one of the country’s coal mining reservations.
“To ignore these intertwined seismic threats is not mere negligence — it is the reckless endangerment of lives, ecosystems, and future generations,” the group said.

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