Trump stays popular in Philippines despite Iran war fuel crisis
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr gives a press conference on the Philippines’ national energy emergency at Malacanang Palace in Manila on Wednesday.
Photo: EPA Even as the Philippines thrashes through the throes of an energy crisis born of the Iran war, Filipinos themselves largely appear uninterested in blaming the man who started it.
Instead of Donald Trump, public ire has instead coalesced around Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and his administration for failing to quell soaring prices.
Fuel costs have rocketed across the archipelago since the United States and Israel first struck Iran on February 28, following the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz through which much of the Middle East’s oil and gas flows.
Petrol station attendants across Metro Manila were manually repricing their pumps last week, as their digital boards – never designed for three-digit fuel costs – could not cope with record prices.
A worker uses black tape to adjust the prices on a digital sign board that cannot accommodate additional digits at a petrol in Quezon City, Philippines, on Tuesday.
Photo: AP Diesel has already hit 115 pesos (US$1.92) per litre in some locations and threatens to climb higher, eating into minimum daily wages that do not exceed 700 pesos in the Philippine capital.
On Tuesday, Philippine senator Panfilo Lacson placed the blame squarely on Washington. “President Trump’s brinkmanship did not work.
In fact, it has boomeranged,” Lacson wrote on social media. “He should be held to account by the whole world, including his own country.” Many Filipinos online did not appear to share his outrage.
Most instead called for the Marcos administration to put its own house in order, in particular a billion-peso flood control scandal that triggered mass protests and much public fury.
Protesters hold signs calling for the resignation of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr during an anti-corruption rally in Quezon City in November.
Photo: EPA “I think Trump and the US did a good job for them and for the whole world,” wrote one on social media. “We have to view this war from the perspective of the future rather than the current spike in gas prices.” Another challenged the senator directly: “We cannot do anything about a global crisis, as there is one each year.
What is your solution, since the Philippines has funds and can pass laws?” A third was blunter still: “Before you make such demands, first hold the members of Senate and House
原文链接: 南华早报