Abstract
Drawing from recent literature on white elephant projects, thisarticle examines the case of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP)—the paradigmatic example of a white elephant project in the Philippines. The BNPP megaproject had massive implications for the country’s fiscal standing and long-term economic prospects, offering lessons for future projects of this size and significance. By revisiting the BNPP’s problematic history as well as the continuing infrastructure governance challenges in the post-Marcos period, this study outlines the repercussions of such dynamics for the Philippine government’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program, the most ambitious since the Marcos era.KEYWORDS: BATAAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT • INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT • MEGAPROJECTS • RENT-SEEKING • PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (PPP)
Recommended Citation
Mendoza, Ronald U.;; Bertulfo, Donald Jay;; and Cruz, Jerome Patrick;
(2018)
"From Megaproject to White Elephant: Lessons from the Philippines’s Bataan Nuclear Power Plant,"
Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints: Vol. 66:
No.
3, Article 4.
Available at:
https://archium.ateneo.edu/phstudies/vol66/iss3/4
