The time might be right for the Philippines to revisit nuclear energy production as an ongoing energy crisis caused by conflict in the Middle East continues to impact fuel prices, president Ferdinand Marcos Jr has said.

In his state of the nation address to Congress, Marcos said: “Perhaps it is time to revisit nuclear energy production. After all, we are already using nuclear energy in the fields of medicine, in agriculture, water filtration and the upcycling of plastic.

“We are confident in its capacity to reinforce our energy security and bring down the cost of electricity in our country,” he added.

The Philippines relies heavily on imported fossil fuels for over half of its overall energy needs, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), and prices have spiked due to the conflict in the Middle East.