Ramon T. Tulfo August 4, 2020
AMONG the highlights in President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte’s State of the Nation Address was the possible resurrection of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) to bring down the cost of electricity in the country.
The inordinately high cost of electricity has driven or discouraged foreign companies from setting up their factories here.
The inordinately high cost of electricity has driven or discouraged foreign companies from setting up their factories here.
The BNPP, which was being constructed during the time of President Ferdinand Marcos, would have considerably brought down the cost of power in the country if it had been allowed to operate.
The vindictive President Corazon Aquino scrapped the nuclear power plant out of spite for the Marcos regime.
The possible reopening of the BNPP, or another nuclear facility, would jibe with the impending influx of investors from China who plan to set up factories here.
I should know, as I am one of the country’s special envoys to China.
Many Chinese companies have expressed a desire to set up factories in the country and were talking with government agencies before the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
My special envoy office facilitated dialogues between several Chinese investors and officials of the Departments of Trade and Industry; Tourism; Energy; and Foreign Affairs.
Thomas Kwok, a representative of several Chinese investors, told Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez that his clients were eyeing the economic zones in the country to set up their factories.
More Chinese and other foreign investors would be encouraged to put up their offices and plants in the country if the power rates were brought down.
Many multinational companies transferred their plants to our neighboring countries because of the high cost of electricity here.
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Meanwhile, a P12-billion hydroelectric run-of-river plant is being built in Benguet, even with the Covid-19 lockdown.
It will be finished in 2023, a legacy of the Digong administration to the Filipino people.
Renewable energy — like the 60-megawatt hydroelectric project under construction in Benguet — makes use of natural resources such as rain, wind and the sun.
Renewable energy is not dependent on fossil fuels and, therefore, environment-friendly.
The Benguet hydroelectric project makes use of people from indigenous communities.
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