The Department of Energy (DoE) said the upcoming State of the Nation Address (SONA) will guide near-term energy policy as renewed fighting in the Persian Gulf threatens to put pressure on oil prices once more, BusinessWorld reported.
“Hopefully (President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.) can give us a directive on what we need to do so we won’t be affected,” a DoE official said, referring to the potential oil price spikes from geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
The Philippines, a net oil importer, remains vulnerable to global price swings, and the DoE is looking to the chief executive’s address for policy direction on mitigating impacts on consumers and the economy.