BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — The intense economic fallout from the three-month war on Iran has severely struck the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).The food-producing mountain region confronted a staggering 101.4% inflation rate for diesel in April 2026, forcing a dramatic surge in local consumer prices and placing extreme pressure on the country’s primary vegetable supply chain.
Data presented by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) revealed that overall Cordillera inflation accelerated to 7.6% in April, up from 4.5% in March and a stable 3.1% in February.
The primary engine of the region’s ballooning cost of living was the unprecedented surge in transportation and energy costs tied to global supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
- Diesel Inflation: Skyrocketed to 101.4% in April, nearly doubling the already elevated 55.2% inflation rate logged in March.
- Gasoline Inflation: Jumped to 54% last month, doubling from the 27% recorded in March.
- The Pump Shock: In highly isolated mountain zones, fuel prices breached historic thresholds earlier in the quarter, with diesel at one point trading well above ₱100 to ₱130 per liter before experiencing volatile, regulated market rollbacks.
The price shock spared no corner of the highlands, with municipal and provincial inflation figures aggressively breaking local records:
| Province / City | March Inflation Rate | April Inflation Rate |
| Apayao | 8.1% | 14.5% |
| Mountain Province | 4.1% | 10.5% |
| Abra | 4.3% | 10.1% |
| Ifugao | 3.7% | 7.6% |
| Baguio City | 6.2% | 7.4% |
| Kalinga | 1.9% | 6.3% |
| Benguet | 3.2% | 5.7% |
The hyper-inflation of fuel in the Cordilleras carries severe ramifications far beyond the mountains. The region—specifically the terraced farms of Benguet, border towns of Mountain Province, and Tinoc, Ifugao—produces 80% of the daily salad vegetables (such as lettuce, cabbages, carrots, beans, cauliflower, and broccoli) consumed across the entire island of Luzon, including Metro Manila.
- The Transport Burden: Because moving these highly perishable agricultural goods to lowland trading posts relies entirely on diesel-powered trucks, the 101.4% fuel spike has drastically amplified the wholesale cost of food distribution.
- Irrigation Pressures: In provinces like Kalinga, local officials are scrambling to build aid packages for farmers whose mechanized, gasoline-powered water irrigation systems became financially unsustainable to operate.
To avoid a massive food shortage and supply blockades in the lowlands, the national and local governments have rolled out aggressive emergency buffers:
- Toll-Free Food Corridors: Following an emergency inspection at Benguet’s trading hubs, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered toll road operators to allow agricultural cargo trucks to travel through major expressways completely free of charge.
- Calamity Fund Access: Local government units across CAR have been authorized to tap their emergency calamity reserves to distribute fuel and fertilizer subsidies directly to vulnerable farming cooperatives.
- National Price Caps: Under a recently declared national state of energy emergency, the Department of Energy (DOE) has started exercising greater authority to enforce mandatory rollbacks and place strict ceilings on retail pump margins as global oil trading stabilizes.