PANGASINAN Second District Rep. Mark Cojuangco and Alpas Pilipinas urged the executive branch to act on President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s desire to reexamine strategies for building nuclear power plants in the Philippines.

The President said this in the light of the impending power crisis caused by the high and still-rising prices of coal and gas.

The Philippines has felt the severe impact of continuous oil price hikes over the past few months. This added to the already-strained finances of many Filipinos, who are just now beginning to recover from the pandemic's various consequences.

This demonstrates how essential, secure and affordable electricity is for homes, companies and industries where a little change in pricing, generation or supply has a far-reaching impact on everyone and everything.

"Nuclear power is the safest technology ever devised by humans. We should perceive it as a savior rather than a danger," Cojuangco said during his short talk on Saturday at the NuclearPinas event.

"It has been a 15-year advocacy for my children and grandchildren, as I wish for Filipinos to be free of the burden of high electricity prices," he added.

Cojuangco's nuclear advocacy group, Alpas Pinas, thinks that the Filipino people deserve more. He added that it is the right time for nuclear energy to empower Filipinos with affordable, clean and dependable electricity.

The lawmaker mentioned a price range of P16 to P20 per kilowatt hour in Zambales and contrasted it to nuclear power, which may drop to P5 per kilowatt hour or half-priced electricity by 2030. This will vastly improve the lives of millions of Filipinos across the country.

The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), the first in Southeast Asia.TMT file photo             

The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, the country's first and only nuclear power plant, was shut down in 1986 due to safety concerns following the Chernobyl tragedy in Russia in the same year.

"If we exclude Chernobyl because it had no containment and which has an all-time casualty rate of less than 50 since 1986, this data would read zero casualties for nuclear power," Cojuangco said.