Transport unions say the emergency declaration is a ‘superficial band-aid’ that doesn’t tackle the foundation reason behind the gas disaster.
Printed On 25 Mar 2026
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has declared a nationwide vitality emergency in response to the US-Israel battle on Iran and what he referred to as the “imminent hazard” posed to the nation’s vitality provide.
The emergency declaration on Tuesday got here as Philippine transport staff, commuters and shopper teams plan to carry a two-day strike from Thursday to protest the rise in gas costs and what they are saying is the Marcos administration’s failure to swiftly reply.
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“The declaration of a state of nationwide vitality emergency will allow the federal government… to implement responsive and coordinated measures underneath present legal guidelines to handle the dangers posed by disruptions within the world vitality provide and the home economic system,” Marcos Jr mentioned.
As a part of the emergency response, a committee has been fashioned to make sure the orderly motion, provide, distribution and availability of gas, meals, drugs, agricultural merchandise and different important items, he mentioned.
The emergency declaration, which is able to stay in drive for one yr, authorises the federal government to obtain gas and petroleum merchandise to make sure well timed and ample provide and, if needed, pay a part of the contract quantity prematurely.
Authorities are additionally empowered to take motion towards the hoarding, profiteering and manipulation of petroleum product provides.
Earlier on Tuesday, Secretary of Vitality Sharon Garin informed a information briefing that the nation nonetheless had about 45 days of gas provide, based mostly on present consumption ranges.
Garin mentioned the federal government was working to obtain 1 million barrels of oil from nations inside and out of doors Southeast Asia to construct its buffer inventory, however there’ll seemingly be uncertainties in reaching this stage.
Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez informed the Reuters information company that Manila was working with Washington to safe exemptions that might enable for the acquisition of oil from nations underneath US sanctions.
“All choices are being thought-about,” the ambassador mentioned in response as to if Iranian and Venezuelan oil was a part of the talks with the US.
However transport unions and Philippine senators have criticised the federal government’s response to the disaster, accusing the Marcos administration of missing a unified and coordinated motion to mitigate the fallout from the surge in oil costs.
Piston, a federation of public transport associations, described the declaration of a nationwide vitality emergency as a “superficial band-aid that intentionally ignores the structural roots of the gas disaster”.
“If the federal government genuinely intends to guard transport staff and commuters from this geopolitical disaster, it will instantly droop the Excise Tax and Worth-Added Tax on petroleum merchandise to drastically decrease costs in a single day,” Piston mentioned in a press release on Tuesday.
“Moreover, tasking the Division of Vitality to merely monitor ‘profiteering’ is a toothless gesture so long as multinational oil cartels stay legally empowered to dictate extortionate pump costs at will.”
Renato Reyes Jr, of the progressive civil society coalition Bayan, mentioned the declaration “doesn’t tackle the essential downside of runaway oil costs and [their] results on the mass transport system and different sectors within the nation”.
“It doesn’t point out eradicating or suspending oil taxes, that are on the core of the folks’s calls for,” Reyes Jr informed Al Jazeera.
“The place are the wanted worth controls?”
As a part of the federal government’s mitigation measures, college students and staff in some cities are being given free entry to bus rides, and the federal government has began to supply a 5,000 peso ($83) subsidy to motorbike taxi drivers and different public transport staff nationwide to assist them address hovering gasoline and diesel costs.
With reporting from Manila by Michael Beltran.
