Manila, March 24 -- The proposed crisis committee ordered by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. will consolidate and strengthen existing government measures to cushion the impact of the conflict in the Middle East, Executive Secretary Ralph Recto said Tuesday.

Recto noted that the interagency body is not a starting point but a mechanism to sustain and scale up the administration's ongoing response.

"The crisis committee does not start, but sustains and strengthens the multiple mitigation measures launched by the administration since Day One," he was quoted as saying in a news release.

He said the government "immediately scrambled all resources to shield the nation from the immediate fallout," citing a range of interventions already in p...