PRESS RELEASE
Duterte Okays Nuclear Power
Nov. 21, 2016 (EIRNS)—Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, just a few weeks after saying he would not approve nuclear power development during his term, has changed his view after studying a competant analysis and proposal presented to him by his Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, it was reported on Nov. 11.
Duterte had been accosted by anti-nuclear greenies, who induced him to put nuclear power issues aside, but has now been persuaded by an honest appraisal that the country must proceed with restoring the moth-balled Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, closed under orders from the US after its completion in 1984, then moth-balled when Marcos was removed in 1986.
Secretary Cusi had attended the International Atomic Energy Agency conference on nuclear power in the Asia Pacific held in Manila in September, where he met Philippine LaRouche Society founder Butch Valdes, who spoke at the conference on the urgency of reopening the Bataan nuclear plant and proceeding to further nuclear production as the necessary basis for building the nation from its current ruinous state.
Longer-term proposals being considered include construction of the No. 2 plant at Bataan, for which the foundation was already laid back in the 1980s, and to procure small modular reactors (SMR) for use on the islands south of Luzon.
