OnJune 20, 1985, the province of Bataan was witness to the biggest protest-action directed against the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), also known as the infamous “Monster of Morong”.
That day was the tail-end of a three-day protest dubbed Welgang Bayan Laban sa Plantang Nukleyar that drew an estimated 33,000 concerned Filipinos from all walks of life from as far as Manila and nearby provinces to march to Balanga, the capital town of Bataan. It was a march that made history, the overwhelming sentiment to put a stop to the operation of the BNPP made the province of Bataan stand still for a day.
They braved the heat, rain, fatigue, thirst and hunger, yet unwavering and steadfast against tanks and soldiers’ barricades. Bataan’s streets and dirt roads overflowing with ordinary folk, young and not so young, standing up for the sake of their loved ones against the danger of a fully-operational nuclear plant. It bespoke of the kind of heroism and unity that would bring about the EDSA Revolution only a few months away.
Now, with the operation of the BNPP relentlessly pursued by Pangasinan Cong. Mark Cojuangco and his cohorts in Congress, and as anti-nuke leaders and members face harassment and repression;we need to reflect on thelessons of the 1985 Welgang Bayan as we renew our efforts to dismantle the BNPP.
Nuclear Free Bataan Movement Network or NFBM would like to invite you in commemorating the historical Welgang Bayan on June 20,2009. We will retrace the SALAKBAYAN ( Sakay at Lakbay) all through the towns of Bataan, to the momentous meeting ( salubong ) at Barangay Tuyo in Balanga of the North and South contingents of that historical marchand will finish off with a program at Balanga Town Plaza.
For those who will be coming from Manila and other parts of the National Capital Region, please coordinate with us so that we can caravan to Bataan.
So that you can plan accordingly, the send-off in San Fernando Junction is scheduled at 7am and we are expected to meet up with the Zambales contingent by 9am in Layac.
From there we would caravan to the towns of Orion and Samal. In Samal, we will march to Abucay where we will have our lunch then afterwards continue onto Bgy. Tuyo to meet the South Contingent for the ‘salubong’ and a short program.
From there, the whole march would head to Balanga Town Plaza for the program proper.
Please wear comfortable green shirts, and footwear, as well as bring provisions for food and drink.If you can, please bring enough to share. If you would like to participate in the program, please don’t hesitate to inform us.
We hope to see you there!
You may contact Chester Amparo @ 09228765851 or email nfbmnet@gmail.com for more information.
Susugalan mo ba ang panganib ng plantang nukleyar?
Sa Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, nakasalang ang kaligtasan at kapakanan ng ating mga minamahal sa buhay at mga susunod na salinlahi.
Lalo’t desidido at determinado ang mga pro-nukes, sa pangunguna ni Cong. Mark Cojuangco at Cong. Herminia Roman na paganahin ang Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) sa bisa ng panukalang HB 6300 (An Act Mandating the Immediate Rehabilitation, Commissioning and Commercial Operation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant or Bataan Nuclear Power Plant of 2009).
Mula simula, pinuruhan ng dalawang tusong Kongresista ang probinsya ng Bataan, partikular ang bayan ng Morong na syang tahanan ng BNPP.Umugong ang bali-balitang may inilaang P50 Milyon para basagin ang anti-nukleyar na sentimyento ng taga-Bataan. Usap-usapan ding may Vice Mayor na pinagbili ang paninindigan sa halagang limang milyong piso.
Walang pinalampas na pagkakataon si Cojuangco, (karay nuong una ang mga konggresistang napapirma nya sa kanyang panukala) na mag-ronda barangay sa Morong, pilit kinukumbinsi ang mga tao na kaunlaran at trabaho kung sila’y susugal sa BNPP. Kaalinsabay nito, sunod-sunod namang naglabas ng pamprobinsya at pambayang resolusyon na tumututol sa BNPP.
Buwan ng Hunyo: tapos na ang dalawang buwang bakasyon ng mga mag-aaral at kabataan; Araw ng Kalayaan, mga karaniwang kaganapang iniuugnay sa ika-anim na buwan ng taon.
Para sa mamamayan ng Bataan,ito ang buwan pagpapakita pagkakaisa at paninindigan laban sa Plantang Nukleyar , dalawampu’t apat na taon ng nakalilipas.
Huwebes, Hunyo 20, 1985 animo’y ghost townang buong Bataan - walang pasok sa eskwelahan at pabrika, walang tao sa bukid,walang sasakyan sa lansangan; abala ang mga maybahay sa pag-aayos ng pamatid-uhaw o kaya’y pantawid-gutom sa libo-libong nagmamartsa laban sa Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, ang tinaguriang Halimaw ng Morong. Ang mga barikada’t tangke ng mga Philippine Constabulary (PC) ay walang nagawa sa malakas na daluyong ng mamamayang nagkakaisa.
House Bill 4631 (HB 4631) sponsored by Pangasinan Congressman Mark Cojuangcofailed to pass the House Committee on Appropriations, instead of $1B to re-commission the three-decade old nuclear power plant the Committee ruled to allot Php 100 Million for a ‘ feasibility study’ (this despite past voluminous studies on the plant).
Immediately, the bill was modified by members of the Committee on Energy and Appropriations (most of them are signatories to Cojuangco’s HB 4631) and was re-submitted to the Committee on Rules in substitution to four earlier bill pertaining to the BNPP (HB 1039, HB 4631, HR 250, HR 257).This came to be known as HB 6300 (An Act Mandating the Immediate Rehabilitation, Commissioning and Commercial Operation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant or Bataan Nuclear Power Plant of 2009).
A 50-year-old agreement with the IAEA has effectively gagged the WHO from telling the truth about the health risks of radiation
Fifty years ago, on 28 May 1959, the World Health Organisation's assembly voted into force an obscure but important agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency – the United Nations "Atoms for Peace" organisation, founded just two years before in 1957. The effect of this agreement has been to give the IAEA an effective veto on any actions by the WHO that relate in any way to nuclear power – and so prevent the WHO from playing its proper role in investigating and warning of the dangers of nuclear radiation on human health.
The WHO's objective is to promote "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health", while the IAEA's mission is to "accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world". Although best known for its work to restrict nuclear proliferation, the IAEA's main role has been to promote the interests of the nuclear power industry worldwide, and it has used the agreement to suppress the growing body of scientific information on the real health risks of nuclear radiation.
Under the agreement, whenever either organisation wants to do anything in which the other may have an interest, it "shall consult the other with a view to adjusting the matter by mutual agreement". The two agencies must "keep each other fully informed concerning all projected activities and all programs of work which may be of interest to both parties". And in the realm of statistics – a key area in the epidemiology of nuclear risk – the two undertake "to consult with each other on the most efficient use of information, resources, and technical personnel in the field of statistics and in regard to all statistical projects dealing with matters of common interest".
The language appears to be evenhanded, but the effect has been one-sided. For example, investigations into the health impacts of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine on 26 April 1986 have been effectively taken over by IAEA and dissenting information has been suppressed. The health effects of the accident were the subject of two major conferences, in Geneva in 1995, and in Kiev in 2001. But the full proceedings of those conferences remain unpublished – despite claims to the contrary by a senior WHO spokesman reported in Le Monde Diplomatique.
Meanwhile, the 2005 report of the IAEA-dominated Chernobyl Forum, which estimates a total death toll from the accident of only several thousand, is widely regarded as a whitewash as it ignores a host of peer-reviewed epidemiological studies indicating far higher mortality and widespread genomic damage. Many of these studies were presented at the Geneva and Kiev conferences but they, and the ensuing learned discussions, have yet to see the light of day thanks to the non-publication of the proceedings.
The British radiation biologist Keith Baverstock is another casualty of the agreement, and of the mindset it has created in the WHO. He served as a radiation scientist and regional adviser at the WHO's European Office from 1991 to 2003, when he was sacked after expressing concern to his senior managers that new epidemiological evidence from nuclear test veterans and from soldiers exposed to depleted uranium indicated that current risk models for nuclear radiation were understating the real hazards.
Now a professor at the University of Kuopio, Finland, Baverstock finally published his paper in the peer-reviewed journal Medicine, Conflict and Survival in April 2005. He concluded by calling for "reform from within the profession" and stressing "the political imperative for freely independent scientific institutions" – a clear reference to the non-independence of his former employer, the WHO, which had so long ignored his concerns.
Since the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in April 2007, a daily "Hippocratic vigil" has taken place at the WHO's offices in Geneva, organised by Independent WHO to persuade the WHO to abandon its the WHO-IAEA Agreement. The protest has continued through the WHO's 62nd World Health Assembly, which ended yesterday, and will endure through the executive board meeting that begins today. The group has struggled to win support from WHO's member states. But the scientific case against the agreement is building up, most recently when the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR) called for its abandonment at its conference earlier this month in Lesvos, Greece.
At the conference, research was presented indicating that as many as a million children across Europe and Asia may have died in the womb as a result of radiation from Chernobyl, as well as hundreds of thousands of others exposed to radiation fallout, backing up earlier findings published by the ECRR in Chernobyl 20 Years On: Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident. Delegates heard that the standard risk models for radiation risk published by the International Committee on Radiological Protection (ICRP), and accepted by WHO, underestimate the health impacts of low levels of internal radiation by between 100 and 1,000 times – consistent with the ECRR's own 2003 model of radiological risk (The Health Effects of Ionising Radiation Exposure at Low Doses and Low Dose Rates for Radiation Protection Purposes: Regulators' Edition). According to Chris Busby, the ECRR's scientific secretary and visiting professor at the University of Ulster's school of biomedical sciences:
"The subordination of the WHO to IAEA is a key part of the systematic falsification of nuclear risk which has been under way ever since Hiroshima, the agreement creates an unacceptable conflict of interest in which the UN organisation concerned with promoting our health has been made subservient to those whose main interest is the expansion of nuclear power. Dissolving the WHO-IAEA agreement is a necessary first step to restoring the WHO's independence to research the true health impacts of ionising radiation and publish its findings."Some birthdays deserve celebration – but not this one. After five decades, it is time the WHO regained the freedom to impart independent, objective advice on the health risks of radiation.
The bill to re-commission the BNPP to the Committee on Rules was passed as expected and may undergo marathon hearings in the weeks to come.
Nograles, others withdraw support for BNPP’s revival By Gerry Baldo
05/26/2009
Speaker Prospero Nograles led some 60 lawmakers in withdrawing support for the bill pushing for the rehabilitation and opening of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) even as the House of Representatives is set to deliberate and is expected to approve the measure on second reading this week.
Aside from Nograles, among the 60 lawmakers who had initially signed the bill as its co-authors and have withdrawn their endorsement of the proposal were Ilocos Norte province Rep. Roquito Ablan, Cavite province Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, Camarines Sur province Rep. Diosdado Arroyo, Camarines Sur province Rep. Luis Villafuerte, Batangas province Rep. Eileeen Ermita-Buhain , Iloilo province Rep. Janette Garin and House Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora.
The measure to revive the BNPP, filed as House Bill 6300 or “An Act Mandating the Immediate Rehabilitation, Commissioning and Commercial Operation of the BNPP,” was proposed by Pangasinan province Rep. Mark Cojuangco in July last year.
In January, it hurdled the House committee on energy headed by presidential son and Pampanga province Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, without due consideration to concerns about the bill’s many faults.
Last week, the proposal passed the committee on rules and has now been put down in Congress’ order of business, meaning it will most likely be taken up in plenary in the next two weeks.
Concerns have been raised that the bill will be railroaded before the House adjourns on June 5.
HB 6300, a consolidated bill which lists only 125 co-authors, calls for the “immediate rehabilitation and commissioning” of the BNPP. The original bill, HB 4631, listed 185 co-authors.
The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), one of the lead groups opposing the revival of the nuclear plant in Morong town, Bataan province, alleged that in order for the bill seeking the revival the mothballed plant to obtain support and eventual approval, its authors have kept from the public its cost and the dangers it poses on people.
“There has been no recent feasibility study concerning the rehabilitation of the plant, and the bill does not make reference to any of the feasibility studies that were conducted before or after the plant was mothballed 22 years ago,” FDC media campaigner Bobby Diciembre said.
According to the National Power Corp. (Napocor), The government will need around $800 million, or an estimated P40 billion, to rehabilitate the mothballed nuclear power plant.
According to Napocor senior vice president Pio Benavidez, the state-owned firm would also need to spend an additional amount to put up new and additional transmission lines to connect the plant to the Luzon Grid.
Benavidez said the Napocor has sought a budget of P1 billion under the national budget to be used to restart the BNPP. He said for the feasibility study on the revival of the plant, Napocor has allotted a P100-million budget.
Benavidez said the Napocor has started undertaking a “systems verification review” to determine if all the parts of the plant can still be used. He said the Napocor early this year signed a memorandum of agreement with Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) for the conduct of a pre-feasibility study of the BNPP. He said the study is expected to be completed by October.
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes has, though, said the Philippines is not yet ready for nuclear power.
“Let us not get into it (nuclear power) unless we are dead sure that we are ready. We don’t want another situation where we put an expensive power plant and we can’t use it. The most expensive nuclear power plant is one that you set up but is not operational. We don’t want another one like that. Thus, if the country is not ready, then it should not proceed with it,” Reyes said at a recent forum that had as a topic energy.
Reyes, however, said the Department of Energy was still keeping its options open on harnessing the BNPP since it is the cheapest source of power.
“We are keeping the nuclear power option as an option. But right now (I believe the country is) not ready for it,” he said.
The Catholic Church and non-government organizations have been airing opposition to the proposal to revive the BNPP, warning of the possible risks it poses to the public’s health and safety.
May 28, 2009 Yesterday afternoon, elements of 303rd PMG nabbed anti-nuke activist Archie Betan in Samal Bataan, while waiting for an anti-nuke youth forum. In the process, the military ‘discovered’ arms and subversive documents allegedly in his possession.
We strongly condemn the attack against anti-nuke activist Archie Betan, a leader of Youth for Nationalism and Democracy (YND) in the province of Bataan, a province once again gaining prominence with Congressman Mark Cojuangco’s bid to re-commission the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).
We believe that the military planted the arms and subversive documents in order to implicate Bathan.
Unfortunately for us, this is not the first time that the military has attacked young human rights defenders, like Bathan, we have not forgotten what happened to Audie Lucero, a nineteen year old member of YND found face down in a rice field, summarily executed a day before Valentine’s Day in 2006. He was last seen in the company of military and police in Balanga, Bataan.
As for two others who were said to be with Bathan, surely they were talking about the campaign. We as anti-nuke activists talk with anyone on the basis of the anti-BNPP campaign. We believe that Archie has no knowledge of the alleged identity and affiliation of the two.
We are not surprised that many have lost faith in our law enforcement agencies when they dirty their hands with human rights violations.
For the record, Youth for Nationalism and Democracy (YND) is a national mass organization of youth and students committed to upholding genuine freedom and democratic rights and welfare, taking their inspiration from national hero Jose Rizal and the First Propagandists.
YND has made concrete its nationalist stance in various issues since it was formed. It has taken up student concerns like tuition fee increase, rationalization of state colleges and universities (SCUs), commercialization of education, campus repression. Also, its commitment to unite the youth and serve the people extend to taking on issues of a broader perspective like the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the on-going war in Mindanao, Charter Change, E-VAT, oil deregulation law among others.
Bathan has been with YND during his student days in Baguio, organizing the University of the Cordilleras ( formerly known as Baguio College Foundation), and in coming back to his home province, organizing for YND at Bataan Heroes’ Memorial College and in the Bataan Peninsula State University.
His anti-nuke engagement is only a logical offshoot for a socially-involved individual like him.
We believe that this is the beginning of a crackdown aimed at cooling the fiery protest of the people of Bataan and other advocates perpetuated by the GMA government and its military as well as pro-nuke forces deeply entrenched in the present system.
Force of might and guns are their answer to the irrefutable facts surrounding the BNPP and the bitter reality of nuclear energy, still the most expensive and damaging energy alternative known to man.
Indeed, the pro-nukes have every right to be concerned, since in just a short time, the anti-nuke debate was quickly elevated as a national concern, with veterans and an ever-growing younger crop of anti-nuke advocates galvanized into action.
We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Bathan, the authorities have no reason to hold him. We will not be cowed not silenced by such brute attacks, but remain resolute and steadfast in our stance to uphold youth and students’ democratic rights and welfare as well as continue our efforts in raising awareness of young people against the falsehoods of nuclear power. ####
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