{"id":5641,"date":"2026-03-25T03:35:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T03:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/25\/philippine-president-declares-energy-emergency-as-impact-of-iran-war-felt\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T03:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T03:35:21","slug":"philippine-president-declares-energy-emergency-as-impact-of-iran-war-felt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/25\/philippine-president-declares-energy-emergency-as-impact-of-iran-war-felt\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippine president declares energy emergency as impact of Iran war felt"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Transport unions say the emergency declaration is a \u2018superficial band-aid\u2019 that does not address the root cause of the fuel crisis.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has declared a national energy emergency in response to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/counting-the-cost\/2026\/3\/24\/are-middle-east-attacks-pushing-asia-towards-an-energy-crisis\">US-Israel war on Iran<\/a>\u00a0\u2060and what he called the \u201cimminent danger\u201d posed to the country\u2019s energy supply.<\/p>\n<p>The emergency declaration on Tuesday came as Philippine transport workers, commuters and consumer groups plan to hold \u200ca two-day strike from Thursday to protest the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/24\/how-does-the-current-global-oil-crisis-compare-with-the-1973-oil-embargo\">increase in fuel prices<\/a> and what they say is the Marcos administration\u2019s failure to swiftly respond.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/3\/24\/arms-manufacturer-thrives-amid-us-israel-war-on-iran\">Arms manufacturer thrives amid US-Israel war on Iran<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/24\/trump-keeps-up-claims-of-talks-with-the-right-people-in-iran\">Trump keeps up claims of talks with \u2018the right people\u2019 in Iran<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/3\/24\/has-iran-brought-down-an-unkillable-us-f-35-jet-3\">Has Iran brought down an \u2018unkillable\u2019 US F-35 jet?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/3\/24\/iranian-missiles-cause-injuries-and-major-damage-across-israel\">Iranian missiles cause injuries and major damage across Israel<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cThe declaration of a state of national energy emergency will enable the government\u2026 to implement \u200cresponsive and coordinated measures under existing laws to address the risks posed by disruptions in the global energy supply and the domestic economy,\u201d Marcos Jr said.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the emergency response, a committee has been formed to ensure the orderly movement, supply, distribution and availability of fuel, food, medicine, agricultural products and \u2060other essential goods, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The emergency declaration, which will remain in force for one year, authorises the government to procure fuel and petroleum products to ensure timely and sufficient supply and, if necessary, pay part of the contract amount in advance.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities are also empowered to take action against the hoarding, profiteering and manipulation of petroleum product supplies.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Tuesday, Secretary of Energy Sharon Garin told a news briefing that the country still had \u2060about 45 days of fuel supply, based on current consumption levels.<\/p>\n<p>Garin said \u2060the government was working to procure 1 million barrels of oil from countries within and outside Southeast Asia to build its buffer stock, but there will likely be uncertainties in reaching this level.<\/p>\n<p>Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez told the Reuters news agency that Manila was working with Washington to secure exemptions that would allow for the purchase of oil from countries under US sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll options are being considered,\u201d the ambassador said in response to whether Iranian and Venezuelan oil was part of the talks with the US.<\/p>\n<p>But transport unions and Philippine senators have criticised the government\u2019s response to the crisis, accusing the Marcos administration of lacking a unified and coordinated action to mitigate the fallout from the surge in oil prices.<\/p>\n<p>Piston, a federation of public transport associations, described the declaration of a national energy emergency as a \u201csuperficial band-aid that deliberately ignores the structural roots of the fuel crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the government genuinely intends to protect transport workers and commuters from this geopolitical crisis, it would immediately suspend the Excise Tax and Value-Added Tax on petroleum products to drastically lower prices overnight,\u201d Piston said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFurthermore, tasking the Department of Energy to merely monitor \u2018profiteering\u2019 is a toothless gesture as long as multinational oil cartels remain legally empowered to dictate extortionate pump prices at will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Renato Reyes Jr, of the progressive civil society coalition Bayan, said the declaration \u201cdoes not address the basic problem of runaway oil prices and [their] effects on the mass transport system and other sectors in the country\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt does not mention removing or suspending oil taxes, which are at the core of the people\u2019s demands,\u201d Reyes Jr told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere are the needed price controls?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As part of the government\u2019s mitigation measures, students and workers in some cities are being given free access to bus rides, and the government has started to provide a 5,000 peso ($83) subsidy to motorcycle taxi drivers and other public transport workers nationwide to help them cope with soaring gasoline and diesel prices.<\/p>\n<p><em>With reporting from Manila by Michael Beltran.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Transport unions say the emergency declaration is a \u2018superficial band-aid\u2019 that does not address the root cause of the fuel crisis. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has declared a national energy emergency in response to the US-Israel war on Iran\u00a0\u2060and what he called the \u201cimminent danger\u201d posed to the country\u2019s energy supply. The emergency declaration &#8230; <a title=\"Philippine president declares energy emergency as impact of Iran war felt\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/25\/philippine-president-declares-energy-emergency-as-impact-of-iran-war-felt\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Philippine president declares energy emergency as impact of Iran war felt\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}