Marcos Floats Nuclear Energy Return in SONA
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- President Ferdinand Marcos suggested in his July 27 State of the Nation Address that the Philippines should "revisit nuclear energy production," citing the country's status as paying the highest electricity prices in the region amid Middle East conflict-driven inflation.
- The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, completed in the 1980s but never launched due to corruption and safety concerns, remains the Philippines' sole nuclear facility; the country has held exploratory nuclear talks with Japan, France, Russia, and the US, and signed a May 2024 training deal with Washington.
- Marcos announced a full income tax exemption for Filipinos earning up to 350,000 pesos (US$5,670), up from the previous 250,000 peso threshold, as part of middle-class relief measures.
- Marcos confirmed his cousin, former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, will face ombudsman charges over a corruption scandal tied to bogus flood-control projects; a year after the scandal surfaced, only one sitting politician has been arrested.
- About 3,000 protesters gathered three kilometres from the House of Representatives, with 25-year-old activist Iya Trinidad saying "no big fish have been caught."
- Former Philippine Nuclear Research Institute director Carlo Arcilla called reviving nuclear energy "a no-brainer," citing frequent brownouts in the Visayas region (home to over 20 million people) where hydro and geothermal capacity falls short.
- Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said in March the Philippines planned to boost coal-fired power output to keep electricity costs down as the Middle East war disrupted gas shipments to the import-dependent archipelago.
Why it matters: Marcos' nuclear pivot targets the Philippines' electricity-cost crisis — the highest in the region — but the Bataan plant's 1980s corruption legacy and the stalled anti-corruption drive (one sitting politician arrested in a year, none of the "big fish") raise doubts about execution. With Marcos' approval at 38 per cent, the SONA's energy pledges and tax relief are also a political survival play aimed at an embattled middle class.
