PHILIPPINES PERSPECTIVE

Manila is living the energy crisis in its flesh. Cagayan de Oro, a city of 730,000 on the island of Mindanao, declared a state of emergency after fuel reserves fell below critical thresholds. Transport cooperatives suspended operations — tens of thousands of commuters found themselves without a way to reach work. The crisis spawned new crime: two people were arrested for siphoning diesel directly from a tanker truck, and authorities seized 9.75 million pesos worth of fuel in an illegal fuel trafficking operation, with nine arrests. Siphoning is not banditry — it is a symptom of an economy where fuel is worth more than what people earn in a week. President Marcos Jr. signed legislation authorizing the suspension of fuel taxes, and Congress is preparing a 'Bayanihan 3', the third crisis package in six years following those from COVID. But this time, the enemy is not a virus with a predictable curve — it is a war 8,000 kilometers away whose duration nobody knows. In the Philippines, the energy crisis is not read in Brent prices but in lines at gas stations, buses at a standstill, and courts judging diesel thieves.