Smart and strategic

Remember that saying, “When America sneezes, the world catches a cold?”

- FORMER SENATE PRESIDENT MANNY VILLAR

In this case, America just let out a thunderclap of a sneeze that shook the Middle East—and we're about to come down with a raging fever. The Philippines may be thousands of kilometers away from the region, but our economy is tightly linked to what happens there. When tensions rise in that part of the world, the impact eventually reaches our ports, gas stations, groceries, and even the homes of families who depend on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).The Philippine economy runs largely on imported fuel, with most crude and refined products coming from oil producing countries, many of them in the Middle East. Any disruption in production or shipping—whether due to war, blockades, or attacks on tankers—can push global oil prices higher and make energy more expensive for us. As I write this, oil companies are poised to increase prices by as much as P25 per liter, and analysts expect this latest Mideast conflict to last about five weeks, so we can expect prices to go even higher.