Madrigal vowed to oppose the similar measure in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Gert Libang, spokesperson of Gabriela, recalled the women’s group’s active participation in the “No to BNPP” campaign in1985, Gabriela then only being a year old.

“During those times, a welgang bayan (people’s strike) was launched. In Central Luzon, tens of thousands of men and women, children and their folks, stopped all activities and went out of their houses to join the protests. Today, with the leadership of this new alliance, we expect the people to be active once more, as the grounds for opposition are as strong as before,” said Libang.

The historic welga ng bayan (people’s strike) against the BNPP during the 80’s was led by the late Senator Lorenzo “Ka Tanny” M. Tañada.

Robbie Tañada, grandson of the late senator and president of the Lorenzo Tañada Foundation, told the media, “Thirty years ago, in 1979, former senator Lorenzo Tañada or Ka Tanny to his colleagues, expressed his concern and opposition to the construction of the BNPP and the Westinghouse deal.”

Tañada called the BNPP as the ’70s template of the anomalous NBN-ZTE deal. “Ilang Marcos cronies ang nakinabang.” (Many Marcos’ cronies benefited from the construction of the BNPP.) He added that his grandfather aptly called it, “a monumental folly.”

Meanwhile, Bishop Solito Toquero, vice chairperson of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and co-chair of the Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF) also expressed the Protestant churches’ opposition to the revival of the BNPP.

Toquero read the NCCP statement signed by its general secretary. Rev. Fr. Rex Reyes Jr., “Then, the NCCP, compelled by a Christian mandate to make a stand for the very core of God’s Creation which is human life, rejected the construction and operation of the BNPP. The NCCP affirms that stand today by joining the ranks of personalities and groups in the Network Opposed to Bataan Nuclear Power Plant Revival (NO to BNPP Revival!).”

“Reviving a facility full of defects will entail resources from the public coffers. Its planned operation and upkeep will certainly be another source of corruption. Resurrecting this monstrous monument to the folly and corruption of the Marcos dictatorship is a bigger folly,” the NCCP statement further said.

“The BNPP is a relic of the past that was already laid to rest… It should not be raised from the dead,” the church group said.

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