The Department of Energy (DOE) through Secretary Sharon Garin has assured the nation that we have a 60-day supply of petroleum products in the nation’s storage facilities.
This assurance was sought by the media because of the truncated supply chain for oil as a result of the ongoing US-Israel war against Iran. With the Philippines still a net importer of fuel and very much dependent on imported oil from the Middle East, let alone natural gas from Qatar, there is now deepening concern on how the economy would be negatively impacted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran.
It does not help that our friends in the petroleum business such as Singapore, Qatar, China, Thailand and Malaysia, which have been reliable sources of PHL oil imports, have understandably closed their doors for exports.
Garin admitted that many of these companies are our suppliers, but who could blame them for prioritizing their own domestic needs before helping their neighbors?
The conflict in the Middle East just proved to one and sundry that fuel and energy are the real concerns related to national security, and not those small shoals and rocks in the South China Sea which have earned the fixation and fears from our officials, arguably because the United States is the one stoking the flames of discontent in that part of the globe.
In the wake of all these, what is President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. doing? He has advised some 2 million OFWs in the Middle East to take precautions, contact the embassies and consulates if there are problems. He advised the DFA and the DMW to mobilize assistance, and there is an Inter-Agency Energy Efficiency and Conservation Committee (IAEECC) to coordinate efforts.
There is an ongoing mass evacuation of OFWs, and this means serious pressure on the Phl labor market. This will exacerbate the downward spiral of the Philippine economy, with its high inflation, lack of investor confidence, decreasing remittances, slow government spending following the shameful raids on government coffers by corrupt high officials through the scandalous flood control scandal, etc.
With the return of the OFWs, remittances from abroad and their new job contracts will necessarily decrease, again to the detriment of the PHL economy.
Here’s where the egregious lie gets interesting, sadly. The government knows that with the concomitant setbacks for the country that the US-Israel-Iran war brought, the question about the nine EDCA military bases of America across the country will resurface.
The National Security Council (NSC) and the foreigner-led (Maltese) Department of National Defense are experts at gaslighting. Both denied the presence of US military bases in the country. They said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) remains fully in control of all military sites and they warned against fear mongering amid the conflict in West Asia.
This is a big lie, because our government officials are clueless on how the EDCA bases operate. These bases are de facto US territories, and the enemies of America consider them as legitimate targets in this war.
If the West Asia war deteriorates and engulfs most countries in Asia, including India, Pakistan and the Southeast Asian Nations, the Philippines will find itself drawn to another war for which it is unprepared to join and also largely unwanted by Filipinos.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonNews