The Philippines may have permanently lost its era of P60-per-liter diesel, with the country’s energy chief warning that structural damage to oil infrastructure in the Middle East has made a return to those price levels unlikely.
Energy Secretary Sharon Garin made the assessment during a Sunday interview on dzBB, pointing to physical damage sustained by oil facilities caught in the ongoing regional conflict as the key obstacle to any meaningful price recovery.
“Hindi ko ma-predict kung ano ‘yung pinaka-lowest na aabutan natin. Baka hindi na tayo aabot tulad ng dati na P60 per liter yung diesel dito,” Garin said.
At domestic pumps, petroleum products from some oil firms are now running at around P130 per liter — more than double the benchmark that consumers once considered normal. The price surge has been building since US-Iran tensions escalated on February 28, with oil companies rolling out successive fuel hikes in the weeks that followed.
Compounding the supply pressure, Iran’s navy has closed the Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply moves — further tightening global market conditions.
Garin acknowledged that a shorter conflict could have allowed prices to correct. “Kung two weeks lang ‘yung giyera, bababa. But the structural damage has already been done. It will take a long time to fix the facilities,” she said.
Consumers hoping for a swift rollback should temper expectations, the secretary warned. Even if oil prices trend downward, the pace of decline will not mirror the speed of the recent run-up — and the adjustment period could stretch across the next six months.
