MARCOS SIGNED AN ENERGY EMERGENCY ORDER ONE DAY AFTER THE PALACE CALLED IT A "PRICE DISRUPTION"

Monday, March 23, 2026. Presidential Communications Office head Claire Castro stood before reporters at Villamor Air Base and said the following: "We do not view the situation as an oil crisis because we have a full and adequate supply of oil."

She used the phrase "price disruption."

Twenty-four hours later, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Executive Order No. 110, declaring a state of national energy emergency — citing an "imminent danger of a critically low energy supply" that required "urgent measures."

Same administration. One day apart. Completely opposite assessments of what was happening.

WHAT THE PALACE WAS SAYING BEFORE EO 110

The walkback on Monday was not the first time the Palace had pushed back against calls for an emergency declaration.

On March 17, as fuel crossed P100 per liter for the first time and labor group TUCP was publicly urging Marcos to invoke Section 14(e) of the Oil Deregulation Law, Castro was direct: "At this time, we are not in a situation where the President would need to declare a state of emergency." The Philippine News Agency ran the headline: "No need for nat'l emergency, PBBM on top of oil situation."

On March 18, Marcos himself visited a wet market in San Juan and told reporters everything was normal and there was no need to hoard.

By March 23, the position had technically softened — Castro acknowledged that a crisis committee was being formed under the President's orders, but she declined to name its members or provide details because it was still being finalized. A crisis committee, she said, without being able to say who was in it or how it would function.

The same day, Senate President Vicente Sotto III signed the enrolled fuel excise tax bill (HB 8418) — legislation passed unanimously in the Senate and by a 247-3 margin in the House — and transmitted it toward the Office of the President.

WHAT CHANGED BY MARCH 24

The Senate's PROTECT committee convened a hearing that morning. Senator Loren Legarda told the agencies in the room: "Each agency represented here must act as if we're in a crisis because we are in a crisis." Senator JV Ejercito was more blunt: "We are in crisis already!" Senator Bam Aquino, who had been calling for a formal emergency declaration for days, said the country had been at crisis level "for nearly a month."

Marcos gave an interview to Bloomberg Television that same morning, telling anchor Haslinda Amin that grounding flights was "a distinct possibility" due to jet fuel scarcity. Cebu Pacific had already suspended routes and cut frequencies.

That afternoon, House Speaker Bojie Dy III signed and transmitted HB 8418 to the Office of the President — completing Congress's end of the process. The bill gives the President authority to suspend or reduce excise taxes on petroleum products during an emergency, and one of its triggers is a formally declared national emergency.

By around 7:29 PM Philippine time, Marcos signed EO 110.

WHAT EO 110 ACTUALLY DOES

The declaration cites the US-Israel military operations against Iran beginning February 27, 2026 — which blocked the Strait of Hormuz and triggered what the International Energy Agency described as the largest oil supply shock in recorded history — as posing "imminent danger upon the availability and stability of the country's energy supply."

EO 110 invokes the legal architecture of the Oil Deregulation Law (Republic Act 8479), specifically Section 14(e), which allows the Department of Energy to temporarily take over or direct the operations of any oil company during a national emergency. This same provision was used by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2009 under EO 839, which ordered oil firms to freeze prices at pre-typhoon levels in Luzon. Pilipinas Shell challenged that law all the way to the Supreme Court — and lost, in a March 2024 ruling that upheld Section 14(e) as constitutional, clearing the legal path for Marcos to use it without the same judicial risk Arroyo faced.

EO 110 also formally adopts the UPLIFT program — the Unified Package for Livelihoods, Industry, Food, and Transport — framed as a whole-of-government response targeting transport workers, farmers, and small businesses.

DOE Secretary Sharon Garin is named in the EO as the official who "determined that the foregoing circumstances pose an imminent danger of a critically low energy supply."

WHAT EO 110 DOES NOT DO

There is no price ceiling on petroleum products in the order. ABS-CBN explicitly noted the EO "did not specifically mention if the government would place a price ceiling on petroleum products." The DOE would need to issue a separate implementing directive to impose any actual price controls — those directives had not been issued as of the signing.

HB 8418 — the fuel excise tax suspension bill that Congress finished transmitting to Marcos the same day — had not been signed into law as of that evening. The bill arrived at the Office of the President on March 24. Marcos had not yet acted on it.

The "crisis committee" Castro announced on March 23 still had no publicly named members as of EO 110's signing.

So the declaration exists. The DOE now has the legal authority, under Section 14(e), to direct oil companies, demand full supply disclosure, and potentially impose operational mandates. But none of those specific actions had been ordered yet. What the administration signed was the legal foundation — not the structure built on top of it.

Another nationwide transport strike, organized by the No To Oil Price Hike Coalition, was still scheduled for March 26-27.