PHILIPPINES PERSPECTIVE

Manila lives the economic fallout of the war in gas station queues, not on trading screens. The Inquirer documents a 50% drop in visitors to Baguio during Holy Week due to rising fuel prices — a direct consequence of the Middle Eastern conflict hitting Filipino daily life. This framing is the most human in the panel: where Bloomberg talks of bond rallies and Taipei of stock surges, Manila talks of families giving up their holidays. The Philippines, which imports virtually all its oil and where motorized tricycles are the main transport for working-class communities, feels the energy crisis in the flesh of its population. The Inquirer mentions neither the ceasefire nor Hormuz reopening — it only sees pump prices and tourists who stopped coming.