The recent drone attacks on a huge oil facility of state-owned Aramco in Saudi Arabia increased the oil price in our country.
An oil shortage or steep rise in oil price will surely rock our economy. The “drone attacks on 2 major oil facilities of Aramco in Saudi Arabia are expected to cut the country’s output by 5.7 million barrels per day or more than 5% of the global oil supply.
The problem is, the Philippines rely heavily on imported fuel. It would have an adverse impact on the country. The government must ensure the compliance of oil companies with the minimum inventory requirement. There must be a continuous supply of fuel to the motoring public.
Following the attack in Saudi Arabia, global oil prices surged by 11% and are expected to further drive fuel prices up. Saudi Arabia is the top supplier of crude oil in the Philippines. We import 33.7% of our crude oil from this Middle East kingdom. Surging crude prices would lead to higher prices of goods and services, and a large import expense which could weaken the peso against the dollar. Oil prices would likely soar because no timeline for the restoration had been given.
Other OPEC countries and Russia can pump more oil but they don’t have enough space capacity to cover the entire shortfall.
The higher oil prices would in turn lower the income of PAL and Cebu Pacific Air by higher input cost.
Last year, the Philippines paid P707 billion for imported petroleum products up by 32% from 2017.
This attacks in Saudi Arabia affects the geo-political situation in the region and worsen relations between Iran and the United States. The United States accused Iran of an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.

September 21 indeed is a very significant date in the history of our country. This is annually remembered but not celebrated because most reports in media, even in some public fora, give focus only on the negative aspects of the historic event.
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There were indeed killings – called extra-judicial killings – as used in these times; of personalities identified as communist sympathizers and those who actively joined the rebellion, led by the Communist Party of the Philippines whose main objective was to overthrow the existing government. The rebellion almost succeeded because there were already several barangays especially in rural areas which were already controlled by the communist. In fact these barangays were already headed and operated by communist leaders. They were identified as shadow government because the official barangay officials still functioned.
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To be an activist was a popular breastplate among students and young leaders in those times.
Graft and corruption was rampant then. It was because of this situation that on Sept 21, 1972 President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos declared Presidential Proclamation No 1081 putting the whole nation under a military rule or Martial Law. The president laid down 2 major objectives for such: “ to stop rebellion and create a New Society.”
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For the many of us who already were matured enough during the Martial Law period know that indeed there were a lot of transformation in the way government was administered. Rebellion was neutralized, graft and corruption got checked and the most important achievement was the spread of massive infrastructure projects nationwide and were effectively done. Marcos-type school buildings were constructed even in far-flung barangays. And many more.
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I find it a necessity therefore that after 47 years when Martial Law was declared that patriotic and responsible Filipino citizens to organize a group to help inform the millennial about the positive side of Martial Law to be fair and credible when one reads Philippine history.

It would have been extinguished centuries ago. Yes, with the kind of enemies it had repeatedly faced throughout history. With the natural harshness of its land. With its diaspora that lasted for several centuries. With the insurmountable hardships that its people went through. With its amazing restoration and rise to prominence in today’s modern world.
But the world, for one, is to know the God of the universe through the small nation of Israel. The Bible teaches that. So God, in his sovereign plan, had seen fit to preserve this nation against all odds. And, indeed, the amazing survival of Israel up to this day clearly manifests the existence of a divine protector, the presence of the God of the Bible, the reality of his power as creator and controller of the universe.
To borrow some data from a speech of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Jews, just 70 years ago, were taken to slaughter like sheep. They were a people with no country, and no army. Only a few hours after its restoration as a nation, seven (7) neighboring Arab countries immediately declared war on this newly-formed Jewish state. Just six hundred fifty thousand Jews (650,000) against millions of Arabs from Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. But Israel miraculously beat them.
Thirty-five (35) years ago, the three most powerful armies in the Middle East attacked them, but Israel had defeated them in six days. Various other coalitions of Arab countries with modern weaponry repeatedly attacked, only to end up each time in devastating defeat at the hands of the Jewish nation.
Now the Jews have a country, a powerful army and air supremacy, a cutting-edge economy with exports worth billions of dollars, hi-tech companies that develop sophisticated products, pools of dcotors and scientists receiving international awards for their research, satellites that had been sent into space, and many more. A country with 65% desert now sells oranges, flowers, and vegetables all over the world.
To think that, just a few decades ago, they were hopeless and helpless, doomed as they were led to the slaughter. How come they had won their wars and survived? They survived the Egyptian Pharaohs, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, the inquisition in Spain, the madness of Hitler, the Holocaust, the armies of seven Arab countries, and the ruthlessness of Saddam—all of which did their best to destroy this tiny race, but the Jewish people survived. Ironically, these powers and cultures no longer exist today.
Who would have survived naturally against the aggression of these superpowers? Without divine protection from the God who promised to preserve this nation, Israel would have been wiped out centuries ago. That’s precisely why jealous nations are against the Jews. The God of the Bible, the creator of heaven and earth, continues to make his presence felt and seen not just through nature, through his Word, etc., but also through this tiny nation he protects and preserves for the world to believe there’s a God who rules the universe.