Senate Deputy Majority Leader Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito on Wednesday, March 25 said he welcomes President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s declaration of a state of national energy emergency but the directive is already “a bit too late.”

That is why Ejercito said the government should not act in a haphazard manner in the face of the oil crisis happening in the country. 

“I welcome it although it’s a little bit late because this crisis happened just a month ago and the price of oil has been skyrocketing, every week it is being raised significantly,” Ejercito said in Filipino during a Kapihan sa Senado forum.

“But at least there is an admission that there is a problem. I said it should be treated like the Covid pandemic, there is uncertainty, we don’t know how long it will last,  when it will end, and to what extent its impact will be, so the treatment should be the same as 2020 (pandemic),” he said.

Moreover, the government should have formed a crisis committee since the start of the Middle East conflict.

The government, he said, could have immediately formulated concrete plans and actions in order to temper the impact of the crisis on the country’s economy and on consumers.

“We should have had a crisis committee from the beginning, when there was a problem with the fuel supply, the government should have formed a crisis committee. That's why I said there is a crisis, don't pretend that everything is normal. There should be concrete plans and actions, there should be contingency,” said Ejercito. 

“There is already a crisis, and we cannot force people to live as if everything is normal when prices are above normal,” he said. 

Ejercito said the government should stop reacting only when problems worsen.

“What people are looking for now are concrete actions, a contingency plan if supply runs out and what alternatives are being prepared,” he said.