Congressman Mark Cojuangco, a persistent advocate of nuclear energy‘s role in achieving energy security and sustainability in the Philippines, doesn’t mince words when it comes to the Philippines’ energy future.
“I have a problem with RE (renewable energy) being talked about in the magnitude that it serves the Philippines right now,” he says, zeroing in on the overhyped promise of wind and solar. These sources, he argues, are a sliver of the energy mix—hydro and geothermal carry the renewable load—yet the government’s betting big on them. It’s a gamble he’s not buying.
During the 3rd Ruperto P. Alonzo Memorial Lecture Series: The Energy Trilemma – An Analysis of the Philippine Situation, Cojuangco, who currently chairs the House Committee on Nuclear Energy, points out that our location first and foremost undermines the effectiveness of solar as a reliable energy source for the Philippines. “We are on the western side of the Pacific Ocean where the trade winds cross… many months of overcast weather, which doesn’t do good for solar power,” he explains.
A visit to the International Rice Research Institute drove it home: poor sunlight means even rice yields suffer, needing special seeds. “We are a poor country to really maximize the use of solar,” he concludes. Wind’s no better—lulls can last weeks, and offshore farms in the West Philippine Sea? “It’s so simple to cut the line… and disrupt the supply of power.”
Cojuangco points to the reliance on backup plans as a key issue. Since solar doesn’t generate power at night and wind can be inconsistent, the growing push for liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports—especially with Malampaya’s output declining—raises concerns about long-term energy strategy.
Meanwhile, the Philippines chokes on fossil fuels—85% of its electricity, with coal at 65% and gas at 20%. For every 1,000 megawatts of coal, “we import between USD 600 to 700 million a year’s worth of fuel.” For nuclear power, it would only be “between 20 and 30 million dollars a year.”
That’s the hook: nuclear energy density. “A Mongol pencil eraser sized nuclear pellet is worth over a ton of coal,” he marvels. Japan learned the hard way—post-Fukushima, shutting nuclear plants spiked fossil fuel imports by “USD 30 billion a year,” ballooning to “half a trillion U.S. dollars” over a decade after Russia’s Ukraine war.
“The Japanese saw it as an export of their wealth,” he notes. The Philippines, he warns, is on the same path, burning dollars earned by overseas workers “only to burn it to create electricity.”
For Cojuangco, the “fix” is to have 16,000 megawatts of nuclear power by 2045, piggybacking on the Duterte-era forecast of demand tripling to 68,000 MW. It’s not about replacing fossils outright—just meeting growth. The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, a mothballed billion-dollar asset that Cojuangco proposed to re-commission in 2009, is his ace.
“The plant itself, the plant site… the power line, the road… I would say it’s worth a couple of billion US dollars,” he estimates. “If we treated that as our equity we could (deliver) 6.7 times more than that amount for nuclear new build without appropriating a single peso.”
The Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) gets his ire too. Its 50% renewable target by 2040 leans on wind and solar, but “solar has a capacity factor of 15% and wind has a capacity factor of 35%, 40%,” he says. “If you say 50% nominal capacity, it’s not that much.”
LNG as backup? “Why not have nuclear plants as backup instead of gas?” he challenges. Globally, the tide’s turning—California’s Democrats just saved a nuclear plant; Bangladesh is building its first. “America is turning its back on wind,” he adds.
The Department of Energy (DOE) isn’t keeping up. “Their nuclear PEP is anemic,” according to Cojuangco, criticizing the government’s one-reactor-at-a-time approach. The UAE’s Barakah plant, built in clusters of four, cut costs by 30%. “The cheapest way to build nuclear is four per site,” he insists.
Public support is there—78% of Filipinos back nuclear, per a Duterte-era survey, tired of “high electricity prices.”
A veteran lawmaker and son of industrialist Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., the congressman has long pushed Pangasinan’s growth—roads, now energy. In Labrador, Pangasinan, he’s pitched a plant with free power for locals. Nuclear, Cojuangco believes, offers a brighter path forward. “They can imagine prosperity,” he says of communities like Labrador, where affordable power could transform lives—a vision that he is determined to turn into reality.
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