Duterte hopes next admin would consider using nuclear power
MANILA, Philippines — Outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday he hoped the incoming administration would explore nuclear power as a source of energy, especially with the world now in an oil crisis marked by skyrocketing fuel prices as a result of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Shifting from oil to nuclear power as an energy source would be a good idea, he said on Monday in his taped weekly “Talk to the People.”
“We are not yet at this nuclear level, but I hope that the next administration would, at least, explore now the possibility of [shifting to] nuclear [power]. You know, oil is not infinite. It will end. Someday it will dry up,” the president said, speaking in a mix of English and Filipino.
“It will be good for any government to prepare the possibility of making the transition earlier from oil — a fossil fuel — to nuclear [power] because nuclear is forever,” he added.
He acknowledged that nuclear power could be dangerous, citing the 1986 nuclear accident that happened in Chernobyl in Ukraine.
President Rodrigo Duterte during a “Talk to the People” weekly briefing last April. (Photo from a PCOO video on Facebook)
Duterte lamented how the Philippines had to resort to importing oil as the Russia-Ukraine crisis had been driving up the prices of fuel.
“Those who are using vehicles complain every day that gas is getting higher by the hour. The reason for the rising prices of gasoline is we do not have our own. We just import from other countries. We don’t have our own source,” he said.
“There will be no new normal and it’s going to be a hard climb for everybody. From where we will get our next supply of fuel, I cannot speculate,” he went on. “I’m on my way out. I don’t know how to solve the problem. You have to solve the war between Ukraine and Russia before we can return to normalcy.”
“It’s a bleak picture at the moment because it seems Putin still doesn’t want to end the war,” he added.
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