BALANGA CITY, Philippines?Evoking scenes from the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, residents of Bataan and neighboring provinces clutched rosaries, carried images of the Virgin Mary and prayed as they marched here Monday in protest of a plan to reopen the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) located in this city.

Meeting in front of St. Joseph Cathedral, nuns, tribal folk, environmental groups, students and parish leaders joined the protest in response to a call from Balanga Bishop Socrates Villegas to block a bill reviving the facility built during the administration of the late President Ferdinand Marcos but later mothballed because of safety concerns and corruption issues.

Authored by Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, son of business tycoon Eduardo ?Danding? Cojuangco, with Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel ?Mikey? Arroyo, eldest son of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as co-author, the measure seeks to revive the $2.3-billion BNPP purportedly to address the problem of global warming and an impending power crisis in the country by 2012.

?Let?s stand up for each other like we did at EDSA in 1986,? Villegas said, reading from a pastoral statement during Mass.

More than 15 priests concelebrated the Mass with Villegas, who had served as secretary to the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, one of the EDSA revolt?s major players.

Pope Benedict XVI and the late Pope John Paul II only advocated safe nuclear science for health purposes and for the welfare of humankind and nature, Villegas said.

He added that reputable geologists like Dr. Kelvin Rodolfo had advised against the nuclear plant?s revival because of the possibility of a volcanic eruption and an earthquake at the site, while Dr. Nicanor Perlas, an environmentalist, said the BNPP was built without experts monitoring its construction.

?All the priests and nuns here have stood up to the BNPP to give a voice to Bataan,? he said. ?Our parishioners see it as a threat to their health and life.?

A separate rally was held Sunday by the international environmental organization Greenpeace, its affiliates and their families on the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City.

Greenpeace and the Network Opposed to BNPP have stepped up its campaign against the plant, urging congressmen to withdraw their signatures from House Bill 4631.

The alleged ?undue haste? in the passing of the bill in the energy committee headed by Mikey Arroyo had also been questioned by critics. With a report from Nikko Dizon