President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed the Department of Foreign Affairs to initiate discussions with Iran to help ensure the safe passage of Philippine-bound vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro received the order during a meeting of the government’s inter-agency task group UPLIFT, where concerns over maritime security in the Middle East were discussed, Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro
“She will meet with the ambassador of Iran, most probably (today). If not (today) then by next week,” Castro said.
“Our relations with Iran are good,” the Palace official added.
Castro said the DFA has yet to provide details on specific Philippine-bound ships scheduled to pass through the waterway.
US President Donald Trump warned Monday that if Iran did not strike a war-ending deal – which included reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane – US forces would destroy all of Tehran’s oil wells, its main Kharg Island export terminal, power systems and possibly desalination plants.
Following Trump’s threat, US and Israeli strikes hit military facilities in central Iran, damaged a major religious site in the northwest and provoked power cuts Tuesday.
Video footage verified by Agence France-Presse showed at least two massive explosions and columns of smoke in Isfahan, central Iran. State media reported the Grand Husseiniya, a Shia religious center, was damaged in Zanjan in the northwest.
Iran’s Fars news agency reported explosions and power outages in parts of Tehran, where residents painted a picture of a city that is still clinging to some routine despite tight security.
Oil prices were again climbing steadily as markets weighed Trump’s confidence that Tehran would soon buckle to military pressure and accept a deal against fears that a possible US ground operation in the Gulf would further escalate the conflict.
Domestic pump prices continued to be affected by hostilities in the Middle East as one day trading showed an increase of up to P15 per liter for diesel and P3 to P4 per liter for gasoline, industry sources said.
Members of the LPG Marketers Association (LPGMA) will also implement a staggered P10 per-kilogram increase, or P110 for a standard 11-kilogram cylinder, effective today (April 1).
The move followed a P20 per-kilo increase last week, bringing the total adjustment for April to P30 per kilo, or P330 per 11-kilo tank.
Petron, however, will implement a P20/kg increase in LPG prices effective today.
LPGMA president Arnel Ty said in an interview with GMA News TV the hike is driven by higher international contract prices and rising logistics costs.
The suggested retail price of an 11-kg LPG tank currently ranges from P1,350 to P1,400. By next week, prices in Luzon are expected to reach P1,450 to P1,500. In the Visayas and Mindanao, prices could be an additional P100 to P150 higher due to transport costs.
“If prices exceed those levels, consumers can complain to their barangay or the PNP because of a memorandum of agreement between the DOE and the Philippine National Police,” Ty said. “Anything over P1,600 is overpriced.”
Meanwhile, explosions were heard in Dubai and near Erbil airport in northern Iraq, and sirens sounded in Jerusalem and two people were wounded when air defense intervened to intercept a drone near the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, civil defense said.
Israeli emergency services said eight people received minor injuries from falling munitions fragments in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv. At least 10 blasts were heard in the Jerusalem area after missile launches from Iran were detected.
Kuwait’s state oil company reported that one of its giant crude old tankers was on fire in Dubai Port after a “direct and malicious Iranian attack while in the anchorage area.”
Such attacks on oil tankers and export facilities have world markets jumpy, and all eyes were on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow maritime channel out of the Gulf that Iran has effectively closed to all vessels except those it approves as not hailing from “hostile countries.”
Two Chinese container ships were able to pass the strait, and Beijing expressed gratitude to “the relevant parties,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters.
World oil prices have surged overall since the US and Israel launched the war more than a month ago with strikes on Tehran that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei but fall back every time Trump promises a rapid conclusion to the conflict, leaving markets jittery.
“The fog of war continues,” investment adviser Christopher Dembik of Pictet Asset Management said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump’s partner in attacking Iran, said more than half of the operation’s military aims had been achieved, but both leaders have refused to put a timeline on the war.
Israel’s military also reported Tuesday that four more of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon, where the war has spread and where they are battling Iranian-backed Hezbollah. With AFP
