{"id":356517,"date":"2026-03-25T02:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/356517\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T02:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:14:10","slug":"philippines-declares-national-energy-emergency-and-boosts-coal-power-as-iran-war-grinds-on-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/356517\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippines declares \u2018national energy emergency\u2019 and boosts coal power as Iran war grinds on | Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has declared a state of \u201cnational energy emergency\u201d as a result of the Middle East war<\/a>, which his administration said posed \u201can imminent danger of a critically low energy supply\u201d.<\/p>\n

The state of emergency, which will initially last for a year, was declared just hours after the country\u2019s energy secretary said the Philippines<\/a> planned to boost the output of its coal-fired power plants to keep electricity costs down as the war wreaks havoc with gas shipments.<\/p>\n

\u201cA state of national energy emergency is hereby declared in light of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and the resulting imminent danger posed upon the availability and stability of the country\u2019s energy supply,\u201d the executive order released on Tuesday evening said.<\/p>\n

The order authorises the department of energy to take direct action against hoarding or profiteering, and to make advance payments to secure fuel contracts.<\/p>\n

Later on Wednesday, it emerged the Philippines<\/a> is seeking waivers from the US state department so it can obtain oil from US-sanctioned countries \u2013 possibly including Iran and Venezuela \u2013 to ensure its fuel supply, the country\u2019s ambassador to the US, Jose Manuel Romualdez, told Reuters. Asked if Washington had responded, Romualdez said the matter was a \u201cwork in progress\u201d.<\/p>\n

As of 20 March, the government said the country has about 45 days of fuel supply remaining and is seeking to procure another 1m barrels of oil to build its buffer.<\/p>\n

The department of migrant workers, meanwhile, was asked to brace for the possible rescue and evacuation of Filipinos in the Middle East. About 2.4 million Filipinos live and work in the Middle East, including about 31,000 in Israel and 800 in Iran.<\/p>\n

The government has also started to provide 5,000 pesos ($83) each to large numbers of motorcycle taxi drivers and other public transport workers nationwide to help them cope with soaring fuel prices. Free bus rides have also been provided to students and workers in selected cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe declaration … will enable the government, through the [energy department] and other concerned agencies, to implement responsive and coordinated measures under existing laws to address the risks posed by disruptions in the global energy supply and the domestic economy,\u201d the order said.<\/p>\n

The order also grants the transportation department the ability to direct public transportation fuel subsidies and reduce or suspend toll charges and aviation fees, while fast-tracking aid to individuals in \u201ccrisis situations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Philippines, which has some of the region\u2019s highest energy costs, is heavily dependent on imported fuel to keep its power plants running.<\/p>\n

The archipelago nation of 116 million relies on coal for about 60% of its electricity generation.<\/p>\n

Energy secretary Sharon Garin told reporters earlier on Tuesday that with the cost of liquefied natural gas (LNG) soaring, the country would \u201ctemporarily\u201d be forced to lean even more heavily on coal.<\/p>\n

While hoping to \u201cmaximise\u201d the use of local coal, the Philippines was also keeping the option of upping its purchases of coal from top supplier Indonesia, the energy secretary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked to the generation companies, the coal-powered plants, to check how much they can increase their generation,\u201d Garin said, calling it a \u201ctemporary measure\u201d that could start as early as 1 April.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are successful in implementing this, at least we can decrease the electricity rate hikes because of the conflict in the Middle East,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Indonesia has assured the Philippines it would place no limits on coal orders, Garin said. \u201cThere\u2019s no restriction on our importation of coal from Indonesia as of today,\u201d she said, adding that increased purchases may not be necessary.<\/p>\n

Marcos in January announced a \u201csignificant\u201d discovery of natural gas made near the country\u2019s rapidly depleting Malampaya offshore natural gasfield.<\/p>\n

It was hoped the discovery could extend the life of the field, which supplies about 40% of power to main island Luzon and was expected to run dry within a few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has declared a state of \u201cnational energy emergency\u201d as a result of the Middle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-356517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}