From Hormuz to Home Solar and Hybrid Cars: The Philippines' Energy Transition Dividend

By Vince S. Pérez, Former Philippine Energy Secretary, Altemergy Chairman

The Philippine Star | May 7, 2026

Dubai crude at US$105 a barrel. Asian LNG at US$30 per million British thermal units. A regional energy bill US$300 billion higher than a year ago. For us in the Philippines — which imports nearly all its oil and is watching the Malampaya gas field slowly deplete in real time — the cost is uncomfortably personal. The 2026 US Israel Iran war has handed our country its steepest energy shock since 1973. Yet hidden behind that shock lies the most powerful catalyst the Philippines' clean-energy transition has ever had.

A bill we can no longer afford

Our Asia Pacific region consumes three-quarters of the crude transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The Philippines sits at the most exposed end of that exposure: pump prices have crossed Php 100 per liter and fuel-subsidy debates are back in Malacañang. The lesson of 2026 is not that oil price is volatile — every Energy Secretary already knew that. The lesson is that the cost of doing nothing about it is now printed on every gas station receipt we pay.

The electron beats the barrel

The economics have flipped permanently. The Department of Energy's Green Energy Auction Program has already cleared more than 11,600 megawatts of solar, wind and hydro capacity at tariffs cheaper than imported coal. MGen’s Terra Solar project in Nueva Ecija, Alternergy’s giant 8MW wind turbines in Quezon and Rizal, and Prime Infra’s 600MW Olympia Wawa pumped storage project in Rizal prove the technology works at Philippine scale. The Strait of Hormuz blockage shock has not changed the technology; it has changed the urgency of deploying it.

Sun on the roof

Rooftop solar is the fastest domestic megawatt the Philippines can add. The DOE's net-metering rules and the Energy Regulatory Commission's simplified interconnection process must now be augmented — raising the 100-kilowatt cap, fast-tracking permits for residential and commercial systems, and extending the zero-duty treatment for imported solar components. The Green Energy Option Program, which lets large industrial users contract directly with renewables suppliers, should be widened to mid-sized commercial buyers.

Electric mobility, finally inevitable

The Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (EVIDA) and the Comprehensive Roadmap for Electric Vehicles (CREVI) are now genuinely strategic, not aspirational. The Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program — long stalled by financing gaps — must be re-funded and re-engineered for electric jeepneys, e-buses and e-tricycles. The zero-tariff treatment for imported electric vehicles, which is set to lapse, must be extended. Electric vehicle charging infrastructure mandates for malls, condominiums and government buildings should be enforced rather than suggested. Every EV charging point installed in 2026 is a barrel of crude that we do not have to import in 2030.

An opportunity we may not slip

Wars eventually end. Oil prices will likewise fall. The temptation to relax — to defer the next Green Energy Auction, postpone the offshore wind tender, or soften electric vehicle targets — will return. We must resist it. The Strait of Hormuz shock has handed Manila a gift wrapped in pain: clarity about where our economic security really lies. It lies in the sun above us, the wind around our 7,641 islands, the rivers flowing from our mountains, and the batteries beside us. Build now, while the lesson is still fresh in our pockets.