New Senate leader ‘open’ to consider construction of nuclear power plant

INCOMING Senate President Miguel Zubiri said Friday he is “personally open” to consider allowing a nuclear power plant in the country after a survey showed majority of Filipinos favor the construction and activation of such a facility.

“I personally am open to it,” Zubiri told the Businessmirror, but indicated they have yet to do a headcount to get the pulse of the majority. “I am not sure about our colleagues yet,” he admitted.

The incumbent majority leader who is expected to take the helm of the Senate, however, clarified he cannot yet speak for his peers as senators would have to consult each other when the 19th Senate opens on Monday, July 25, 2022. “We will ask them [the senators] when we hold a caucus soon,” Zubiri said.

This developed as a recent PH-PUBLICUS survey result showed at least 59 percent of

respondents “support allowing construction of a nuclear plant in the country.”

In a news statement, it reported the latest PUBLICUS survey results “suggest that a majority of Filipinos support the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Philippines,” referring to the 59 percent of respondents to the 2022 PAHAYAG Second Quarter Survey conducted by PUBLICUS Asia Inc. between June 16 and 22, 2022.

The survey showed the respondents “approve” or “strongly approve” of “allowing the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Philippines.”

It also noted that 22 percent of respondents said they “disapprove” or “strongly disapprove” of the construction of a nuclear plant, noting this is the thirdhighest total disapproval rating among all 14 issues tested on the survey, behind “allowing the construction of more coal plants in the Philippines” (26 percent) and “accreditation of bloggers/vloggers in Malacañang” (24 percent).

“Our survey numbers suggest that proposals to add nuclear power to the Philippine energy mix may enjoy considerable support among the general public,” Atty. Aureli Sinsuat, executive Director of PUBLICUS said, noting that “at the same time, nuclear energy’s relatively high disapproval rate indicates that it could be a polarizing issue in future policy discussions.”

Moreover, he added only 47 percent of respondents said they “approve” or “strongly approve” of the construction of additional coal power plants in the Philippines.

Sinsuat suggested “it is interesting to note that our respondents appear to view nuclear power as a more appealing continuous energy source than coal,” adding that “this could provide an opening for advocates to lobby more aggressively for the addition of nuclear power to the energy mix.”

In addition, Sinsuat stressed it would be reasonable to expect “significant policy continuity” between the Duterte and Marcos Jr. administrations in the field of nuclear energy.

he recalled that “this February, President Rodrigo Duterte issued executive Order No. 164 adopting a national position for the introduction of nuclear power into the country’s energy mix that saw President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ R. Marcos Jr. lauding eo 164 during the campaign period and voiced clear intent to follow through with the national nuclear energy policy.”

“Thus, we can expect significant policy continuity in favor of nuclear power between the Duterte and Marcos Jr. administrations,” he pointed out.

This, as the 1,500 registered Filipino voters respondents who participated in the 2022 PAHAYAG Second Quarter Survey were randomly sampled by Purespectrum, a Usbased panel marketplace with multinational presence, from their national panel of more than 200,000 Filipinos. The sample-wide margin of error is +/- 3 percent.