UPLIFT, PROTECT whom?

Even as they adjourned ahead of the Holy Week, our lawmakers reported having acted upon a number of the most needed and urgent bills under the common legislative agenda of Malacañang and the 20th Congress. Our legislators took pride in conducting their respective public hearings on pending bills and “inquiry in aid of legislation” of national and local issues and concerns even while they have already adjourned for their month-long Lenten recess.

At the House of Representatives, the House committee on justice proceeded with their preliminary activities on two out of four impeachment complaints they voted to consider against Vice President Sara Duterte. Under the stewardship of Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy, the Lower House vowed to immediately hold post-Lenten public hearings to look into the Middle East (ME) crisis’ impact even while impeachment public hearings continue.

The Speaker has expanded to 13 the number of committees in the Lower House that were tasked to lead a unified legislative response to the oil price crisis triggered by the ME conflict. The congressional hearings will be led by a cluster of House committees covering critical sectors affected by the crisis, including energy, food security, labor, transportation and economic management.

“The objective of these hearings is to work with our partners in the executive branch to identify solutions and not point fingers,” the Speaker cited. “We want to hear directly from our economic managers and frontline agencies so we have the information we need to come up with measures that can help our people cope with the impact of the Middle East conflict,” the House leader stressed.

The joint congressional hearings set to begin April 8, during the congressional session break, aim to ensure coordination with the executive and produce concrete, actionable measures. As of this writing, House leaders have yet to christen the newly constituted 13 committees tasked to produce legislative responses on the ME conflict.

Much ahead of the House initiative, the Senate began last week its own public hearings on the ME crisis based on Senate Resolution (SR) 350 that was approved unanimously in plenary session last March 18. Crossing party lines, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III wisecracked that SR 350 was co-authored and signed by all senators, except him. Levity aside, Sotto believes in the national cause being pushed by SR 350 to jointly work out with the executive branch measures to pass with urgency the needed contingency measures.

SR 350 created the ad hoc committee named as Proactive Response and Oversight for Timely and Effective Crisis Strategy (PROTECT) committee. Chaired by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, the PROTECT committee seeks to address the economic and strategic fallout from the escalating conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran. The committee aims to produce a consolidated report to aid legislation that protects our people, especially millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), on the domestic impact of the ongoing ME conflict.

Sen. Gatchalian announced the PROTECT committee is ready to put out its first preliminary report and recommendations they have gathered so far from almost whole day-long public hearings for two successive days last week. Gatchalian called upon the national government to consider PROTECT committee recommended measures that can be immediately executed to avert the looming supply shortage of refined petroleum products.

On the part of Malacañang, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) issued Executive Order (EO) 110 declaring a state of national energy emergency effective March 24, 2026. Amid the ongoing ME conflict that has impacted the “availability and stability” of the country’s energy supply, PBBM placed the entire country under a state of energy emergency for one year.

PBBM cited in EO 110 the “imminent danger” of the ME conflict to create the Unified Package for Livelihoods, Industry, Food and Transport (UPLIFT) committee. The Chief Executive designated himself to lead the government’s coordinated responses, consisting of energy supply management measures by the Department of Energy and its attached agencies to mitigate the impact of the ongoing ME conflict.

Such powerful, catchy buzzwords like PROTECT and UPLIFT give us glimmers of hope that the government is doing something to cushion us from the full impact of the ME conflict.

But we can only ask – PROTECT, UPLIFT whom?

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During this Holy Week, it is traditionally celebrated in the Christian world with Palm Sunday masses, with the reenactment of the entry of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem.

Catholic churches all over the country included the Oratio Imperata for peace in the ME in the community prayer, calling for the special intercession to St. Francis of Assisi. Inspired by St. Francis’ prayer, excerpts of which were weaved in to the Oratio Imperata, we asked for protection from global strife, guidance for leaders and for believers to become instruments of peace and reconciliation.

In our Holy Week observance, we pray:

“Heavenly Father, source of all mercy and peace, we humbly come before You in this time of suffering and conflict.

“We entrust to Your loving care the peoples of the Middle East who are afflicted by war, violence and fear.

“Look with compassion upon Your children.

“Comfort those who mourn, heal the wounded, protect the innocent and welcome into Your embrace those who have lost their lives.

“Touch the hearts of leaders and nations, that they may seek dialogue instead of destruction, justice instead of hatred and reconciliation instead of revenge.

“Grant them wisdom and courage to work tirelessly for peace.

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

“May the Holy Spirit guide all peoples to respect the dignity of every human person and to build a future founded on justice, solidarity and lasting peace.

“Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

“Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us.

“St. Francis of Assissi, pray for us.

“St. Lorenzo Ruiz, pray for us.

“St. Pedro Calungsod pray for us.”