Intervention of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. For the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) Plus Online Summit

Thank you, Your Excellency Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, host of this very important gathering we have today, and Your Excellencies, my fellow leaders joining today, I bring warm greetings from the Filipino people.

Prime Minister Takaichi, I thank the Government of Japan for convening us at this urgent moment. Japan’s leadership in calling this Summit reflects both the gravity of the challenge before us and the spirit of partnership that has long defined Asia’s approach to shared problems.

The Philippines is an archipelagic nation of 115 million people. We are mostly dependent on imported petroleum to power our transport, our industries, our hospitals, [and] our homes.

When global supply chains are disrupted – as they have been since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on February 28 this year – the effects arrive at our shores very swiftly and are felt severely.

In the weeks following the Hormuz closure, the Philippines witnessed sharp increases in diesel and LPG prices. Our economy, which grew by 4.4 percent in 2025 and remains on a steady upward trajectory, is now facing imported inflation that threatens the welfare of our most vulnerable households.

Our transport logistics, our food supply, [and] our manufacturing sector are all under real severe pressure.

In response, my government declared a State of National Energy Emergency and we activated the Unified Package for Livelihoods, Industry, Food, and Transport (UPLIFT) program – a whole-of-government package covering fuel optimization, anti-hoarding enforcement, and targeted relief for livelihoods, for industry, food security, and transport.

These are necessary measures. They are, however, not sufficient on their own.

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. 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.

We are pursuing a risk-calibrated procurement strategy that diversifies our oil sourcing away from heavy dependence on Middle Eastern routes and chokepoints.

We are reforming our Minimum Inventory Requirements, proposing to raise obligatory stockholding for petroleum products from 15 to 30 days, and for LPG from 7 to 21 days.

We are also accelerating the development of a domestic Strategic Petroleum Reserve – building a government-controlled physical buffer that can absorb shocks when commercial markets fail.

On the demand side, we are advancing transport electrification, intensifying energy efficiency programs, and expanding our biofuels blending targets to reduce the volume of imported petroleum that our economy requires day to day.

We cannot wait for the next crisis to act.

We must build resilience now as the urgency of this moment is clear.

But national measures, however well-designed, have limits.

Asia’s oil supply chains are deeply interconnected.

A disruption that begins in the Strait of Hormuz ripples through Singapore, the Strait of Malacca, and onward to Manila, Tokyo, Seoul, [and] Jakarta within days.

Our vulnerabilities are shared, and therefore so must our responses be.

It is clear that the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Petroleum Security (APSA) – matters more now than at any point since its adoption.

The enhanced APSA, endorsed at last October’s ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, establishes the architecture for coordinated emergency responses, emergency supply sharing, and, critically, joint oil stockpiling.

The Philippines fully supports its operationalization and we will be an active participant in its implementation.

The APSA’s Coordinated Emergency Response Mechanism provides for member [states] to supply up to 10 percent of a distressed country’s normal domestic requirement, and that is on a voluntary and commercial basis.

This mechanism, once tested and activated regularly, could serve as a meaningful buffer for smaller economies during exactly the kind of disruption that we are experiencing today.

I therefore welcome Prime Minister Takaichi’s initiative to launch a regional supply chain strengthening program. Japan has long been a model of strategic energy management.

Your country maintains some of the world’s most robust petroleum reserves, and your willingness to share that experience with Asia is deeply valued.

Allow me now to offer three concrete proposals that the Philippines would be pleased to champion within this summit’s framework.

First, we call for the early activation and implementation of the APSA Coordinated Emergency Response Mechanism. The mechanism exists and it should be tested now, while the crisis is live and the lessons are immediate. The Philippines is willing to host or co-chair the first full APSA emergency simulation exercise.

Second, we propose that this summit endorse a regional study on joint oil stockpiling, building on the work of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).

ERIA has already identified viable models – national initiatives, ticket stockpiling arrangements, and joint stockpiling with crude exporters. Let us provide them the political commitment to move these from research to negotiation to implementation.

Third, we propose that participating economies define a mutual recognition mechanism of emergency fuel allocation protocols so that, when a member is in distress, the administrative pathways for receiving assistance have already been clearly established and time is not lost to procedural uncertainty.

The energy disruptions of 2026 are testing Asia’s resilience. However, I believe they also are creating an opportunity for us to build the regional energy security architecture that our region has long needed.

Japan’s initiative today is a step in the right direction, and the Philippines stands ready to work alongside every economy represented here.

Our people – represented by all those gathered in this meeting – deserve energy systems that are secure, affordable, and resilient.

That is the commitment we share and that is the goal we pursue together here today.

Thank you.

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