In observance of the annual International Day against Nuclear Tests on August 29, we explore the nuclear laws and policy in the Philippines.
Every August 29th, the International Day against Nuclear Tests is observed globally to raise awareness on the devastating impact of nuclear explosions. This follows the unanimous adoption by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on December 02, 2009, of Resolution 64/35, initiated by the Republic of Kazakhstan, to honor the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site on August 29, 1991. The resolution highlighted the effects of nuclear weapon tests or any other nuclear explosions, and the need for their cessation as one of the means of achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.
Last March at the General Debate of the 3rd Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in New York, the Philippines reaffirmed its stance on the disarmament and de-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Its stance is rooted in Section 8 of the 1987 Constitution, which, in consonance with the national interest, holds a policy of freedom from nuclear weapons in its territory.
The Philippines has ever since strongly upheld its values and advocacy against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, not only within the country but also globally.
The Nuclear Situation in the Philippines
This does not mean, however, that movements for the use of nuclear weapons for the sake of defense and security have not been present in our history.
In fact, in 1973, a year after former President Ferdinand Marcos (Sr.) declared martial law, he announced his decision to build the Bataan nuclear power plant (BNPP) in response to the 1973 oil crisis.
The BNPP was completed in 1984 but was never commissioned. The construction was halted in 1979 following the Three Mile Island accident and health and safety concerns over it. And by 1986, the same year the Chernobyl disaster happened, newly elected President Corazon Aquino decided not to operate BNPP, citing safety concerns, as well as corruption and fraud issues that surrounded the project.
In three different instances in 2016, 2019, and most recently in a 2023 Public Hearing of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, a former defence secretary under the Marcos regime, claimed that the production of nuclear weapons was one of BNPP’s main purposes, and would have helped deter China’s aggression against the country over the territorial dispute.
On March 19, 2025, current President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. reaffirmed the country’s stance against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, as he stressed that there would be no winners in a new potential arms race.
Legal Foundations, Laws, and Policies against Nuclear Weapons in the Philippines
International Level
The Philippines has time and time again attested to its advocacy against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Even before the current charter, the Philippines had already adopted some international policies against nuclear weapons, namely, the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, also known as the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) or the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT), and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
The PTBT prohibited all nuclear weapon test explosions in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater to limit radioactive fallout. It was a response to mounting public concern over the health and environmental dangers posed by radioactive fallout from aboveground nuclear tests. The Philippines signed the PTBT in 1963 and ratified it in 1965.
The NPT is a landmark international treaty that aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and further the goal of nuclear disarmament. The Philippines signed it in 1968 and ratified it in 1970 and 1972.
“The Philippines reaffirmed its commitment to these objectives, highlighting that the treaty ‘remains the cornerstone of the global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation architecture,’” wrote the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
The NPT also binds the country as a member state of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
In 1993, the Philippines became a member state of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), formally the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, which is a disarmament and arms control agreement that aims to eliminate chemical weapons as a weapon of mass destruction.
In 1995, the Philippines signed the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ), also known as the Bangkok Treaty. This treaty, signed by the ten ASEAN member states, aims to prevent nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction from being present in Southeast Asia, thereby maintaining the region as a nuclear-weapon-free zone.
Then, becoming the third Southeast Asian nation to ratify the treaty in 2001, the Philippines signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996, which is a multilateral treaty that bans all nuclear weapon test explosions and any other nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, anywhere in the world. Most recently, the country became a member state of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017 and has been legally bound by it through ratification and enforcement since 2021. The TPNW first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the goal of their total elimination by prohibiting States from developing, testing, producing, acquiring, possessing, stockpiling, or transferring nuclear weapons, among other activities.
National Level
At the local level, the country has enacted several laws and regulations that affirm its nuclear and other biological and chemical weapons non-proliferation commitments.
Republic Act No. 2067, or the Science Act of 1958, is the foundational act that established the National Science Development Board (NSDB), now the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), now the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI). It aimed to integrate, coordinate, and intensify scientific and technological research and development, and to foster invention in different scientific fields, including the study of nuclear processes and atomic energy.
The Science Act of 1958 was later amended by RA 3589 in 1963. It modified the NSDB, PAEC, and the National Institute of Science and Technology. It also extended tax exemption privileges on grants, bequests, and donations for scientific purposes to recognized private educational institutions.
Republic Act No. 5207, or the Atomic Energy Regulatory and Liability Act of 1968, as amended by Presidential Decree 1484, is an act that provided for the licensing and regulation of atomic energy facilities and materials, establishing the rules on liability for nuclear damage, as well as the availability of funds to satisfy liability claims.
Enacted in 2015, Republic Act No. 10697, or the Strategic Trade Management Act (STMA), prevents the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by managing the trade in strategic goods, the provision of related services, and establishes the Strategic Trade Management Office (STMO) which is the body responsible for the export, import, re-export, reassignment, transit, transshipment of strategic goods and provision of related services.
Just this April, the Republic Act No. 12174, or the Chemical Weapons Prohibition Act, was inked into law by President Marcos Jr. It prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons, providing for their destruction and imposing penalties for violations.
It also designates the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) as the Philippine national authority on the CWC. It serves as the national focal point for effective liaison with the governing body of the CWC, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and other State Parties to fulfill the country’s commitments under the Convention, including the preparation and submission of annual declarations on scheduled chemicals and facilities.
Similarly, the Congress passed this June the Senate Bill 2899, formally the Philippine National Nuclear Energy Safety Act, or simply the PhilATOM Act. The Act established the Philippine Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority, otherwise known as “PhilATOM” or the “Authority”, as an independent authority having sole and exclusive jurisdiction to exercise regulatory control for the peaceful, safe, and secure uses of nuclear energy and radiation sources in the Philippines.
Recent Updates
According to DOST, it provides fresh provisions on nuclear safety, security, safeguards, radiation protection, and emergency preparedness and response to align with the country’s international commitments.
Following the passage of this Act, the Nuclear Energy Program-Inter-Agency Committee (NEP-IAC) has been reviewing the existing nuclear laws in the country since August 12.
DOE Legal Services Director Myra Fiera Roa said in a press release that the review of existing nuclear laws will identify “support, constraints, and gaps” to help address these and ensure a sustainable nuclear power program.
“We want to make sure that all legal hurdles are cleared before we take major steps forward in fulfilling our nuclear power objectives. From the review of the laws and issuances, we will propose enactment or amendment of laws as appropriate,” Roa explained.
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Author/s: Patricia Minimo
About the author: Patricia is STLAF's Legal Writer-Researcher. She is a Communication graduate from the University of the Philippines – Baguio with a major in Journalism and a minor in Speech Communication.