Marcos Jr. Expected to Outline Energy Independence Path in SONA

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. needs to lay out his plans to achieve energy independence in his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA), with consumers continuing to suffer from rising fuel costs, according to energy analysts. “Our expectation is that the SONA moves the energy emergency from crisis response toward structural reform,” Yla Gloria Marie Paras, lead economist at Center for Energy Research and Policy, told BusinessWorld. The Philippines declared a state of national energy emergency through Executive Order (EO) 110, which was designed to expedite relief measures such as the Unified Package for Livelihoods, Industry, Food, and Transport (UPLIFT) program, as rising fuel costs drove up prices of goods and services. “EO 110 gave the government a one-year mandate through UPLIFT, but the declaration alone does not fix the country’s underlying exposure,” she added. Mr. Marcos is set to deliver his fifth SONA today, Monday, where he is expected to discuss the status of the national emergency. As a net importer of fuel, the Philippines is vulnerable to global price swings. Due to disruptions in petroleum shipments from the Middle East, diesel prices surged to as high as P170 per liter — among the steepest increases globally, according to Global Petrol Prices. “With the Middle East conflict again pushing pump prices up, the President should commit to real buffers against import dependence, a strategic petroleum reserve, grid modernization to absorb incoming renewables, and a fix for the regulatory bottlenecks at the ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission,” Ms. Paras said. While the emergency response has been swift, Ms. Paras said his approach remains largely reactive, leaning on short-term relief measures instead of long-term investments in reserves, grid capacity, and domestic supply that could reduce vulnerability in future crises. “Until those are in place, each new shock lands directly on Filipino consumers,” she said. Gerry C. Arances, executive director of Center for Energy, Ecology and Development, said inflation remains the country’s most pressing concern, which has been made worse by government policies, corporate profit maximization, and successive global economic crises that jacked up fuel and electricity prices. “While we do not have much faith that the administration has the political will to meaningfully push forward policies that will boost regulation of the oil and power industries, we do hope that the global energy crisis would force the government to admit that some of its policy pronouncements have been misguided at best, disastrous at worst,” Mr. Arances told BusinessWorld. Energy Secretary Sharon S. Garin has said that the Department of Energy (DoE) will await fresh direction from the SONA on addressing the oil crisis. “We’re ready whatever the President directs (us) to do so we won’t suffer as much during an oil crisis,” she said. Last year, Mr. Marcos ordered the construction of 200 power plants to be fast-tracked over the next three years and to accelerate rural electrification. As of November 2025, about 956 megawatts (MW) of new power generation capacity has been injected into the grid, complemented by 160 MW worth of new energy storage capacity, according to the DoE.