Economy

The Philippines gets 98% of its fuel from the Middle East. Already the price of diesel (most passenger vehicles run on diesel) has skyrocketed. The price at the pump today in Iloilo Province was 98 Philippine Pesos (PHP) per liter. That translates to $6.28 a gallon. Before Trump's war, the price was about $3.50 a gallon. Gasoline, which is used mostly for motor bikes and three-wheel vehicles, is about $5.75 a gallon. Before the war, it was about $3.25 a gallon.

That's really not the worst part. This country only has a 50-day supply of reserve. If this war goes on for two more months, we're out of fuel.

. . . Working through that backlog [of ships bottled up in the Persian Gulf, or wanting to enter the Gulf] would take weeks even after the waterway is safe to pass, said Saleem Khan, chief data and analytics officer at maritime-intelligence firm Pole Star Global.

. . . Although the strait is 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, there are only two 1.86-mile stretches where water is deep enough for large oil tankers to pass, given how low these ships sit in the water. “This creates a two-lane highway for large vessels, one lane in and one out. The bottleneck here could last a few weeks at the very least,” he said.