Ducky Paredes

“(T)he ones who made the deals may have been corrupt and immoral but machines are only machines. They have no morality; they only have utility. We bought them; why not use them?”

 

by Ducky Paredes

 

Can we agree that, in taking a last look at whether or not the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant ought to be re-commissioned or finally decommissioned that we consult not our politicians, anti-nuclear lobbyists and/or other persons with limited knowledge on these things; instead, we ought to ask our scientists as a body to take a last good look at the nuclear option before making the decision on whether or not to go nuclear?

Clearly, we need to bring down the cost of electricity. Without cheaper power, it becomes very difficult to set up industries in this country.

What does not help is the mindless opposition of those who are only reprising old arguments that killed the nuclear option at the time when passions were high against the original proponent – Ferdinand Marcos.

Let us do ourselves a favor by taking Marcos out of the decision. What we have is a very expensive power plant that we have not used even as our electricity bills are among the highest in the world.

Certainly, a pastoral statement from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) adds nothing to our knowledge of the nuclear option. Its statement that nuclear is “the most dangerous and expensive way to generate electricity” has to be among the most stupid statements ever made on this issue. Precisely, nuclear is cheaper than anything we now have.

Of course, we cannot deny that Chernobyl happened; but Japan has a lot of nuclear power plants and depends on these for its manufacturing muscle. Yet, Japan has also had no nuclear accidents; a lot of other countries use nuclear power plants without ever having any untoward incidents.

Also, we ought to stop thinking of inanimate objects as having moral character. As with the P1.3 billion Automatic Counting Machines (ACM) that are stored in a Comelec warehouse and which would have been used in the 2004 elections except for a Court ruling that the ACMs would not work, these and the Bataan plant have been bought and paid for by the Filipino people. So, why not use them?

Does the corruption that may have tainted the transaction also taint the equipment?

(In the Comelec case, one wonders whether if the P1.3 billion in 2004 was overpriced, one can be assured that spending P11 bilion this year for the lease of machines to be used in our 2010 elections is a graft-free transaction? After all, the P1.3 billion 2004 purchase would have covered the whole country same as the planned P11-billion lease for the 2010 elections. If there was an overprice in 2004, could we be assured that the P11 billion lease (P9.7 billion more than the purchase – not mere lease –of ACMs in 2004 is actually free of any chicanery?)

The point is that we have non-performing assets in the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant and in the ACMs stored in the Comelec warehouse. To use them at this time would only cause a minor embarrassment for those who opposed both and forbade their use. If we were to take a hard, realistic look at these non-performing assets, what harm can that do us?

But, please, let us not repeat the past mistake of saturating these inanimate assets with immorality. These are equipment. They have no souls and no memories. They are mere tools. Thus, the ones who made the deals may have been corrupt and immoral but machines are only machines. They have no morality; they only have utility. We bought them; why not use them?

Let those who have knowledge about these tools take a look at them and decide for us whether or not they can still be used. And, please, let us keep the politicos and those who have pecuniary interest in selling us machines and/or competing technologies from telling us what we should do. Keep them and our bishops away from the table. Let us do only what is best for us.

It is the only sane thing to do. So, why is that so hard?

* * *

It is not surprising that a toddler was run over by a van driven by a mother picking up her own child at an exclusive school. The most abusive drivers come from the elite in our society and the concentration of elite vehicles from the elite are generally tasked with picking up elite kids from exclusive schools.

I realized this when my children were still in the grade school several years ago. These drivers are worse than your worst jeepney or taxi drivers because they are convinced that they are always right even when they are blocking others or practically sideswiping other vehicles and pedestrians.

My only additional comment on this issue, which I am sure is hurting to all of those involved is that if the offender had been a simple driver, that person would still be in jail weeks after the accident. Too bad that she was so easily granted bail. The best lesson (which would teach her to be more patient on the road and, also more careful, specially when there are pedestrians using the same space) would be additional time in jail.

As a parent, I have absolutely no sympathy and cannot excuse a person who causes a child’s death because she was pre-occupied with something else and not paying attention to what she was doing.

As for the school involved, perhaps, it ought to look at its parking lot and its policy of allowing cars into its campus. Certainly, the fact that a 10-year old student can die so pointlessly in the school’s parking lot ought to alert the administrators that there is something wrong in how the parking lot is used by vehicles that pick up their students.

The first thing to consider in writing up new rules is the fact that drivers from the elite class (and this includes all of their students’ parents, relatives and employees) are the most dangerous because of the mindset that once enthroned in a car seat, they own the road.

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hvp 03.01.09)

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