Turning to Asean for help
The Philippines is battling a perfect storm of challenges from multiple fronts, from pump prices of petroleum products skyrocketing to their highest on record, the peso plunging to its weakest level against the United States dollar and the yet unresolved corruption scandal that has dampened both consumer and investor appetite.
With the Middle East crisis not anywhere close to being resolved, Filipinos face the grim prospect of enduring more excruciating pain ahead as fuel prices will likely continue increasing at the current blistering double-digit pace.
The Marcos administration has already started with the rollout of targeted cash assistance to drivers of public utility vehicles, fuel subsidies to farmers and fishermen, implemented a compressed work week and a host of other energy conservation measures, plus Congress has accelerated deliberations on the cut in the fuel tax to give the people much needed relief from runaway fuel prices.
Late Monday, President Marcos unveiled additional measures, including a cut in the fees charged by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. He has also directed government agencies to determine which license fees, clearance certifications and permits can be temporarily suspended or reduced while Filipinos are reeling from the conflict in the Middle East.
Heavy crude importers
But clearly, while the measures will bring welcome relief at a time when every peso saved means an additional peso for essential needs, these are but temporary and may even be too small to make a significant difference.
The Marcos administration must therefore act with great urgency and take bigger, bolder moves to cushion the heavy impact of surging oil prices and the so-called second round effects that will stoke inflation, such as higher transport fares, more expensive power, and costlier basic commodities in wet markets, groceries, and supermarkets.
One such move is to rally the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to immediately set in motion the Asean Petroleum Security Agreement (Apsa). First signed 40 years ago in 1986 in Manila, it provides a framework for Asean member-states to share petroleum supplies in times of shortage since the region hosts producers such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei and heavy crude importers such as the Philippines and Singapore.
It was refined in 2009 in Cha-am, Thailand, such that the Apsa will be triggered when member-nations reach the “critical shortage” of 10 percent of requirements with the additional focus on voluntary and commercial-based assistance.
Fast-growing economies
The agreement to enhance petroleum security in Asean was then renewed in October 2025 during the 43rd Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to ensure that the safety net remained active and expanded to include natural gas.
Apsa has not been activated as envisioned over the past 40 years, but if the Middle East crisis escalates, threatening the supply and affordability of petroleum products that power the growing economies of the region, the Philippines can leverage on its position as chair of Asean at this pivotal time to ensure that it delivers on the promise and stabilizes the local and regional supply.
The fast-growing economies in Asean, after all, are especially vulnerable to tensions in the Middle East and gyrations in the world market prices of petroleum products as they source the bulk of their crude oil and liquefied natural gas requirements from the Gulf nations.
The Asean Economic Ministers who concluded their retreat in the Philippines last week already said as much, and called for “continued collaboration to advance Asean’s existing energy cooperation frameworks,” including Apsa, in recognition of the urgent need for “continued regional coordination, vigilance, and policy preparedness amid a challenging global environment.”
Catastrophic effects
Such encouraging talk, however, has to be immediately converted into clear guidelines that will, for example, spell out from where the supply will come from, who will be entitled to it, how much can countries secure, how crude will be transported, at what price and for how long.
Ironing out these details will be tedious but nevertheless necessary if the region is to immediately benefit from it and thus mitigate the potentially catastrophic effects of skyrocketing crude oil prices that may very well stay higher for longer as the Strait of Hormuz, through which oil from the Persian Gulf is transported to the importing markets, remains choked off to almost all crude oil carriers.
Asean ministers fortunately do recognize the urgency of the volatile situation and have vowed to expedite action.
As Energy Secretary Sharon Garin has said, it is in challenging times like these that we need more than ever to strengthen the Asean community that had long been criticized for being little more than a group for photo ops, and push it to act together for the mutual benefit of member-nations given the likely scenario of a protracted crisis in the conflict-prone Middle East.
