By Brian Campued
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) lauded the Philippine government’s swift response to protect Filipinos from the impacts of the global oil shock caused by the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
In an interview on PTV’s Rise and Shine Pilipinas this Tuesday, ADB Country Director for the Philippines Andrew Jeffries noted the measures that the Marcos Jr. administration has implemented to address the external shock.
According to ADB’s report over the weekend, the Philippines implemented seven out of eight major policy responses identified by the ADB across Asia-Pacific economies.
These categories include fuel subsidies, targeted assistance, staggered oil price hikes, demand reduction, supply-side actions, and energy diversification measures.
As one of the first countries to declare a national emergency due to the situation, Jeffries said “it’s almost a clean sweep of what the administration has done and put in place to deal with vulnerability to the economy from the rising fuel crisis which has the potential to spill over and cause more general inflation and more of a drag on the economy.”
The ADB official specifically mentioned President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s directive to suspend the excise tax on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene for three months, as well as the Department of Energy’s proactive efforts to coordinate with fuel companies on staggered price adjustments and promote renewable energy investments, among others.
He also commended the monetary actions implemented by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to help manage inflation and stabilize the economy.
Jeffries underscored the “prudent” response of the administration as a “balancing act to the trade-off between maintaining government finances and maintaining debt levels” while also trying to alleviate the burden on vulnerable groups and on the economy.
“I think the very early action and taking this very [seriously] was very commendable. It’s a challenging situation, this is an external shock, it’s not caused by any internal forces—and the tools the government can use to address this shock, they utilized this as widely as they can,” he said.
Malacañang earlier emphasized that the government’s swift and wide-ranging response to the external shock reflects the President’s directive to cushion its impact on Filipinos and secure the country’s energy supply.
The response was carried out under a strategic whole-of-government framework anchored on the United Package for Livelihoods, Industry, Food, and Transport (UPLIFT) established under Executive Order No. 110 issued by Marcos Jr. in March.
-jpv
