MARCH 24, 2026 — Half a million barrels of diesel are sailing toward the Philippines, a supposed lifeline for our thinning fuel buffer. Energy Secretary Sharon Garin insists this shipment, plus another 500,000 barrels being secured, will keep us afloat until early May. Sounds reassuring, right? But here’s the catch: our country gulps down 200,000 barrels of diesel every single day. That means this “lifeline” barely buys us five extra days. Five.

Garin told dzMM: “We’re still about to lock in the contract, then it will be loaded and delivered here. So it will take about one to two more weeks, depending on where it’s coming from.” 

This week, Jetti Petroleum is slapping a one-time increase of ₱18 per liter for diesel and ₱8 for gasoline. Brace yourselves: diesel could hit ₱130 per liter, while gasoline hovers around ₱100. 

Globally, the picture is even uglier. Dubai crude surged past $134 per barrel after the US-Israel war with Iran crippled energy hubs in the Middle East. 

The Philippines, with its lone refinery in Bataan sourcing 98 percent of crude from that volatile region, is exposed like a raw nerve. Unlike our neighbors, we don’t subsidize fuel prices. Why? The Oil Deregulation Law. 

Garin herself admitted, “Other countries can subsidize, but we don’t do that because of the Oil Deregulation Law.”

So here we are, paying more than our neighbors, with no safety net. Senator Erwin Tulfo is pushing Senate Bill 641 to force oil companies to reveal their cost breakdowns. 

He insisted, “We must put an end to this seemingly taking advantage of external events to pass the burden to the consumers.” 

But will transparency stop the bleeding? Or will it just expose how helpless we really are in the face of global oil wars?

Meanwhile, Cebu-based Top Line Business Development Corp. insists there’s no “immediate risk” of shortage, thanks to diversified sourcing. Comforting, but then supply isn’t the problem — it’s affordability. What good is fuel if ordinary Pinoys can’t afford to buy it?

This is the paradox we’re living in: barrels are arriving, contracts are being signed, and officials are assuring us there’s “no crisis.” Yet every Filipino who fills up knows the crisis is already here — at the pump, in the wallet, and in the daily grind.

How much longer can we keep swallowing these painful fuel prices before we finally demand a real fix to how our country secures its fuel lifelines?

(Image: Philippine News Agency)