Fredinand Marcos Gets the Bomb?

"Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday disclosed that arming the Philippines with a nuclear weapon was among the objectives of the construction of the now mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.

In a news forum in Quezon City, Enrile admitted that this was the first time he revealed about the preparation for a weapon of mass destruction planned during the administration of the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

"'By the way, if we continued with that power plant and we did not tinker with it, today, China will not challenge us even if we are a small nation,” said Enrile who served as the defense chief during the Marcos regime.

"'That was intended to prepare us to have nuclear weapons,” the opposition stalwart said.

"The country, which is now the object of alleged bullying tactics of neighboring China, has lost its chance to produce its own nuclear weapon because the BNPP was mothballed even though government had fully paid its foreign loan to build it.

"''At that time when we were setting up the Westinghouse nuclear power plant, there was no non-proliferation treaty yet. That was one of the plans,' Enrile said, referring to the world’s most devastating war weapon..."

http://www.tempo.com.ph/2016/02/14/news/main/ph-had-plans-to-make-nuke-arms/#lzEjg7qAjD5DVM28.99

Does anyone see any possibility of this actually happening?
 
Even so soon before the NPT would be ratified? Not likely at all. I know Marcos embezzled a lot of funds for himself and his family, but throwing billions at atomic development doesn't bear fruit within a few years, and I actually cross-checked the dates and it seems that the Bataan Nuclear Power Station's construction only actually got underway in 1973 despite Filipino domestic nuclear research getting started 15 years before. Plus, consider all the corruption and cronyism that dominated the Marcos regime.

Now, given enough time, and various structural changes to the Philippine government, it could happen, but the political atmosphere was turning against Marcos anyway, with the nuclear power plant being held against him. I doubt it would have had much popular support within the Philippines itself even if the program was initiated/continued/completed under a democratically elected government. Frankly, with public support already dead-set against the nuclear plant despite the fact that it was almost complete when Marcos was overthrown, it probably wouldn't have had further expansion to begin developing weapons-grade uranium.

Frankly, after pulling up Enrile's profile (it turns out he was the Filipino Justice Secretary and Defense Minister under Marcos) I don't think I expected too much different from him, even if the basic facts about the project and the Marcos regime show that attaining a nuke would have been quite unfeasible for the Philippines in the first place.
 
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