Results on Bataan power plant study 'predetermined'
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 06/06/2009 9:10 AM
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MANILA - A bill allocating P100 million for a feasibility study has already "predetermined" results, a member of a multisectoral alliance against the recommissioning and operation of mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) said on Friday.
Engr. Roberto Verzola, secretary-general of Philippine Greens, a member of Network Opposed to Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (NO to BNPP), said in a statement that Rep. Mark Cojuangco's H.B. 6300 on the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) has been scheduled by the House of Representatives for plenary debates when it reconvenes in July.
Yet, the bill already mandates "the immediate rehabilitation, commissioning and commercial operation' of the BNPP (Sec. 3)," Verzola noted.
"Incongruously, while the bill appropriates P100 million 'for the conduct and completion of a validation/feasibility study to determine the viability of rehabilitating, commissioning and commercially
operating' the BNPP (Sec. 21), the bill jumps the gun on the study," Verzola said.
He said there are other indications that the BNPP rehabilitation is already predetermined, namely:
- The Cojuangco bill has not been approved in the House of Representatives nor the Senate, and its becoming a law is by no means assured. Yet, Napocor has already jumped the gun on Congress, and announced that it is currently conducting with the help of the Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) a feasibility study for the rehabilitation of the BNPP with a budget of P100 million.
- The KEPCO study only began in January this year and is supposed to finish its work in October. Yet, Napocor has already jumped the gun on the KEPCO study itself, and announced that the rehabilitation, including transmission lines, will cost $1 billion. The $1B Napocor estimate is exactly the same estimate Rep. Cojuangco had earlier conjured without the benefit of a feasibility study.
- When the KEPCO study was first announced in January, it was a two-year pre-feasibility study funded solely by KEPCO. After the bill was amended to require a feasibility study first, the KEPCO study magically turned into a ten-month full-blown feasibility study and a P100-million windfall for KEPCO, at Napocor's expense.
- As a minimum requirement for credibility, a study that will determine the feasibility of rehabilitating the BNPP must be done by an independent firm or body with no direct interest in bidding for the rehabilitation project itself. In contrast, KEPCO is actually being considered by Napocor to implement the rehabilitation project, a clear conflict-of-interest situation.
"We have KEPCO, eyeing to rehabilitate the BNPP, initially conducting a KEPCO-funded pre-feasibility study which has metamorphosed midway into a feasibility study costing Napocor P100 million, although the bill allocating the amount is not yet approved by Congress," Verzola said, adding that it would not be surprising if the study would agree with Rep. Cojuangco that the cost of the rehabilitation will more or less $1 billion.
"Given these indications, the public does not need to spend a single centavo to know that the KEPCO zarzuela will conclude in October that the BNPP rehabilitation will be a viable project," Verzola said.
The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), another non-government organization, also questioned why the feasibility study, which was originally free, has been allotted P100 million.
"Officials of the Department of Energy and National Power Corporation should explain to the public the 'magical' transformation of this feasibility study," the FDC said.
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