CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines?As antinuclear plant activists started marching on Saturday to mark the 24th anniversary of the Welgang Bayan against the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), Balanga (Bataan) Bishop Socrates Villegas expressed disgust at President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for considering nuclear power as an energy source.

The bishop was reacting to a speech of Ms Arroyo at a meeting of the International Friendship Exchange Council of Japan in Tokyo on Friday where the President said the Philippines was in the process of renewing its energy options, including the use of nuclear power.

?Although that statement is not surprising, it is still disgusting and very disappointing,? Villegas told the Inquirer as he awaited the arrival of some 3,000 antinuclear activists converging in Balanga City. ?It?s disgusting because she had to say that abroad and not to us here in Bataan.?

In February, Villegas rallied Bataan officials as well as various sectors in opposing a bill in Congress for the rehabilitation and operation of the BNPP.

What was disappointing, the prelate added, was the President was ?obviously not well informed about what the hazards and risks from nuclear power and nuclear waste bring to humans.?

He cited a study by a team of 50 nuclear experts that found more than 40,000 structural and safety defects in the BNPP. The study was commissioned by then President Corazon Aquino in the 1980s.

By 3 p.m., the anti-BNPP marchers completed retracing the routes of the 1985 Bataan-wide protest, massing up in Balanga?s Barangay Tuyo where they reenacted negotiations between the military and marchers.

They also released balloons to celebrate the success of the strike that stopped the late President Ferdinand Marcos from ordering the operation of the BNPP in June 1985.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, however, said over government-run radio station dzRB that Ms Arroyo was not advocating for the plant?s reopening.

?If Ms Arroyo is not pushing for the BNPP, why is her ally, (Pangasinan Rep.) Mark Cojuangco, insisting on his proposal to put the BNPP to use?? Msgr. Antonio Dumaual, chair of the Nuclear-Free Bataan Movement Network told the Inquirer.

The Cojuangco measure eventually evolved into House Bill No. 6300, which consolidated four measures for the rehabilitation, commissioning and commercial operations of the BNPP.

Cojuangco had said the BNPP would solve the energy crisis expected in a decade and reduce pollution from fossil fuel.

In a statement on Saturday, the congressman said ?well-organized? attacks against the plant in the media have been obscuring the support for the move, as well as the ?myriad benefits? to be derived from its operations.

Cojuangco also said residents of barangays Sabang, Mabayo, Binaritan, Nagbalayong and Poblacion support the move to operate the BNPP, but their voices have been drowned out by the ?well-funded? lobby against nuclear power by groups such as Greenpeace.

More antinuclear power activists on Saturday said they would continue opposing the BNPP reopening, through a caravan, ?Lakbay Byahe laban sa BNPP at Cha-cha,? and an interfaith prayer rally on June 22 in Balanga. With a report from Alcuin Papa