By Lane Afable, News Editor
President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr. urged the Asian Zero Emission (AZEC) Plus online summit to forge a coordinated and unified response to the current energy emergency, stressing the need for collaboration among Asian countries to weather the resulting supply chain shocks.
“What this crisis has confirmed is a structural truth: no single country in Asia can insulate itself from supply chain shocks of this scale by acting alone,” President Marcos said during his intervention at the AZEC summit convened by Japan.
“The times call for a coordinated, unified response. Even as we manage the immediate crisis, the Philippines is moving decisively to strengthen our long-term supply resilience.”
The President said the Philippines, an archipelagic nation home to 115 million people, is mostly dependent on imported petroleum to power its transport, industries, hospitals, and homes.
President Marcos also enumerated measures being carried out by the Philippine government in response to the crisis, including pursuing a risk-calibrated procurement strategy to diversify oil sourcing away from the Middle Eastern routes and reforming the Minimum Inventory Requirements.
The President also said another measure is the proposal to raise obligatory stockholding for petroleum products from 15 to 30 days, and for LPG from 7 to 21 days.
The Philippines is also accelerating the development of a domestic Strategic Petroleum Reserve, advancing transport electrification, intensifying energy-efficiency programs, and expanding biofuels blending targets to reduce the volume of petroleum the economy imports.
“We cannot wait for the next crisis to act,” President Marcos said. “We must build resilience now, as the urgency of this moment is clear.”
AZEC brings together countries across Asia to address shared energy security challenges. It was launched by Japan in 2022.
