00:00It was mentioned during your joint press conference with President Putin about energy cooperation.
00:07Were there firm agreements reached between the Philippines and Russia?
00:12Well, in terms of, I don't know if in terms of energy that there have been no firm agreements,
00:21but merely an understanding that we will continue to develop what we had already started as a response to the
00:34oil crisis
00:35that was the effect of the war in the Middle East, which we are hoping will come to an end
00:43soon.
00:44But nonetheless, even if the war does come to an end, the Philippines will still continue to look for so
00:53-called non-traditional partners
00:55in terms of the supply of petroleum products.
00:58And I can say that President Putin, the Russian Federation's government,
01:07was very open to any kind of suggestion that we do increase that engagement
01:15and that we look further into getting our supplies of petroleum products from Russia.
01:24The reason being is that what we have been doing with Russia in terms of providing oil products to the
01:34Philippines
01:34has been on a very, on a very ad hoc basis.
01:38Because kung anong, because nung pumotok yung gera,
01:41basta kung saan kayo makakuha, kung saan makakuha.
01:44So, tignan na inyo, basta kausapin yung lahat,
01:47maghanap tayo ng makukunan na petroleum products.
01:50One of those places was Russia.
01:53Pero, oh, sige, one shipment here, one shipment there.
01:56Saan idadaan?
01:58There was no real system in place.
02:01Now we are beginning to put that system in place.
02:03And I think it will be very good for the Philippines to have another assured lifeline
02:10when it comes to petroleum products.
02:13Should anything like this happen again, we don't know.
02:17If the supply will, again, be suddenly, suddenly be cut.
02:24But now we have many more options than we did before.
02:29Sir, does that mean that we will regularly source from Russia?
02:33Well, this is yet to be decided.
02:37There are many complications to that.
02:39It is not that simple, assigning a trade agreement.
02:44There are, of course, geopolitical considerations.
02:51But when two parties are determined to make it work,
02:57I'm always very confident that it will work.
03:00And we will find a way around those challenges and those complications
03:04so that to make it a reality.
03:07Thank you, Mr. President.
03:08Thank you, Mr. President.
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