EO 110 — Not a Crisis: Chester's Fuel Tank Epiphany
2026
EO 110 — Not a Crisis: Chester's Fuel Tank Epiphany
Artist Statement
President Marcos declares a national energy emergency — but insists it's not a crisis. Chester faces the empty tank reality.
On March 24, 2026, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Executive Order No. 110, declaring a state of national energy emergency. The Philippines imports 98% of its oil from the Middle East. With regional tensions escalating, fuel supply is under real threat.
There's just one thing: Marcos has been extremely careful to never use the word 'crisis.' 'This is not a crisis,' he insisted in a nationally televised briefing. 'We are simply being proactive.'
Enter Chester. If the government's own EO calls it an 'emergency' — and EO 110 does exactly that — then the semantic dance around the C-word doesn't really change the substance. An emergency is, by most definitions, a crisis. Declaring one while refusing to name it is a very specific kind of Philippine political theater.
'The meter says empty, sir. But the EO says: not a crisis.'
The satire writes itself — because the contradiction does the heavy lifting. Coal power reversals are now being fast-tracked, the exact fossil fuel path climate scientists have warned against. The Philippines, once a renewable energy pioneer in Southeast Asia, is now scrambling backward at emergency speed. EO 110 doesn't solve the energy crisis. It acknowledges one — in the most Marcos way possible: by announcing you're not in one.
