The widening war in the Middle East is sending shockwaves far beyond the region. The recent invasion and indiscriminate bombing of Iran by US imperialism, carried out with the support of the Zionist state of Israel, has already triggered a global oil price shock. For countries like the Philippines—economically dependent, import-reliant, and governed by a regime eager to serve foreign interests—the consequences are immediate and devastating.
For the Filipino people, the crisis is not an abstract geopolitical conflict. It is a brutal assault on daily survival.
Fuel prices are surging at a pace that threatens to cripple the economy. Diesel is rapidly approaching ₱80 per liter, while gasoline prices are nearing ₱90. The situation may worsen as major suppliers of refined petroleum products—China, Japan, and South Korea—have announced temporary halts in exports of diesel and gasoline. A tightening of oil supply would trigger cascading price hikes across every sector of the economy.
When fuel prices rise, everything rises with them.
Transport fares are already climbing. Shipping fares in the Visayas and Mindanao have jumped by roughly 20 percent, with some companies suspending routes altogether due to losses. Airfare increases are expected soon. Yet while the Marcos government quickly permits large corporations to raise fares, it turns a deaf ear to the demands of jeepney drivers and small transport operators who struggle to survive under the same fuel increases.
Food prices are also accelerating. Even before the war escalated, inflation had reached 2.4 percent in February. Now the price of rice—the staple of Filipino households—threatens to reach ₱50 to ₱60 per kilogram. Vegetables, fish, meat, and other basic goods will inevitably follow, driven upward by rising production and transportation costs and further aggravated by profiteering cartels.
Meanwhile, wages remain frozen.
For millions of workers, the crisis deepens an already unbearable situation. Incomes remain far below the level required for a dignified life, while the demand for a living wage continues to be denied. Families are forced to stretch shrinking incomes further each day, while many workers juggle multiple jobs just to survive.
The crisis also threatens Filipino migrant workers in the Middle East. Thousands face job loss or displacement as conflict spreads across the region. Many are already returning home—not to safety and opportunity, but to an economy plagued by unemployment and lack of livelihood.
This is the grim reality confronting the Filipino people: rising prices, stagnant wages, shrinking jobs, and a government unwilling to defend the public interest.
Instead, the US-Marcos regime continues to collaborate with oil companies and foreign financial institutions in imposing policies that worsen the burden on the masses. Taxes on oil products and the 12 percent value-added tax remain firmly in place, ensuring that every price increase translates into higher government revenue extracted from ordinary consumers.
The regime’s response has been limited to token gestures—meager fuel subsidies, staggered oil price increases, occasional “free ride” programs, and a four-day workweek for government offices. These measures are little more than public relations tactics that fail to address the root causes of the crisis.
Even the possible reduction of excise taxes on oil—now being floated in Congress—would only offer partial relief. It will not reverse the price shocks nor restrain the profit-making of oil corporations.
What is needed instead are decisive measures: scrapping the oil deregulation law that allows unchecked price manipulation, forcing oil companies to absorb a significant portion of price increases through reduced profits, and abolishing the value-added tax on essential goods and services that disproportionately punishes ordinary consumers.
But such changes will not come from the goodwill of those in power.
In times of crisis, the reactionary state urges the people to tighten their belts, endure hardship, and rely on individual survival strategies. Yet history shows that the Filipino people advance their interests not through resignation, but through collective struggle.
Encouragingly, protests have already emerged in recent weeks condemning the US war in Iran and raising urgent economic demands. Mass mobilizations marking the anniversary of the EDSA uprising have likewise demonstrated that the spirit of resistance remains alive.
The global war crisis and the domestic economic emergency are inseparable. The same imperialist system that fuels wars abroad also imposes hardship at home.
For Filipino workers, activists, and friends of the Philippines in the international solidarity movement, the lesson is clear: the burden of imperialist wars must not be placed on the backs of the people.
The answer lies in unity, mobilization, and militant struggle—against war, against exploitation, and for a just and dignified life for the Filipino masses.