MANILA, Philippines -- Around 30 members of the environment group Greenpeace massed outside Congress carrying an eight-foot tall tombstone on which was written "RIP BNPP" and denouncing the project as "grotesquely expensive and based on faulty economics."

Von Hernandez, Greenpeace Southeast Asia executive director, called the bill seeking the revival of the BNPP a "farce."

Hernandez explained that the program may include the "possible commissioning of subsequent nuclear plants to justify the program's existence." This would present a "greater and sustained drain on the country's financial resources on top of the upfront cost of the BNPP rehabilitation itself," he warned.

"The overwhelming safety and security reasons behind why the BNPP was mothballed remain just as valid and unassailable today. Our lawmakers should heed reason and let the BNPP rest in peace," said Greenpeace campaigner Amalie Obusan.

The BNPP was built during the Marcos regime and was mothballed by President Corazon Aquino based on the numerous structural defects found by experts and on the corruption that attended the construction of the power plant.