A POSSIBLY mentally deranged person went inside the LTFRB office in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay the other day. He held hostage a woman by pointing to her a Caliber .45 pistol. Now he is dead even as he somehow made quite a story for the province that he never lived to hear
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Presumptive Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio will take her oath in Davao City instead of in the national capital region. She wants to share her joy with the people of the city who were always with her in her political journey in the past many years. Yes, every Davaoeno has all the reasons to join the Mayor in her oath-taking whether in person or virtual. Her overwhelming win in the Vice Presidency contest is one big source of pride. Meaning, leadership in this country is not just a monopoly of people from Luzon or the Visayas. With Sara in the second highest position of the land hope that another Mindanaoan and scion of the first ever Davaoeno President of the republic will continue the idea that people from the provinces are also capable of heading the national government.
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Incoming President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. told the media in his first ever press conference three days ago that his administration would likely consider the operation of the Aquino 1-mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. We personally believe that the move is a wise one and is in the right direction. That is, if we have to reckon with the ever increasing cost of power in the Philippines due to the dependence of many power generating plants on fossil fuel the supply of which is always at the mercy of the world’s economy and the greediness of leaders of countries having the precious liquid.
We are aware that the most common reason of those who are against the opening of the power plant is the perceived toxic waste that may come out of the plant operation that would have serious impact on the environment. Others think that it should not be operated because it is a monument of massive corruption during the regime of Marcos Jr.’s father. So this group of oppositions would rather have the plant deteriorate and negated to oblivion. Yet those who oppose the running of the plant are also those who complain the loudest on the high cost of power in the country.
We do not know really if their apprehensions are meritorious or that letting the plant rot will correct the alleged infraction of the Marcos Sr.’s government when in fact allowing the multi-million dollar plant to be negated will redound to even more losses in the government coffers. Imagine paying for the loan taken to finance the project and not allowing it to earn so it can help pay the indebtedness! Had the nuclear plant been utilized we are certain that it could have fully acquired the returns of the investment made by the government even as it could have possibly reduced the cost of power in this country
As to the issue of safety, the Philippines for sure is not wanting in people who have the expertise to handle such delicate responsibility. Why, are not our engineers being pirated by huge power plants of all kinds in other countries as safety officers? Are we admitting that we are far inferior to the people of South Korea, Switzerland and other countries that our experts cannot handle the safe operation of a nuclear power plant?
Our son who is a seafarer who was in Argentina for quite some time, told us that the bigger bulk of electricity in that country is supplied by a large nuclear power plant. And there was no single incident of leakage or whatever causing serious damage to environment and people.So, why are we very paranoid of a still perceived danger.
Why not give the government a try to provide an efficient power supply by allowing it to run the plant? Refurbish the same if there is need to if only to assuage the fear of the pessimists among us.
