Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Saturday asked Filipinos to save their dollars as looming oil crisis threatens both the country's energy supply and foreign currency reserve.

"While we conserve energy and seek cheaper, more stable sources of oil, we must at the same time nurse our foreign exchange reserves by increasing inflows and curbing dollar expenditures," said Arroyo in a statement.

She said both economic managers and Filipinos who have overseas remittances are encouraged to save the greenbacks.

"Let us save dollars with the same sense of urgency and use our dollars only for the most indispensable and productive purposes," she said. "There must be cooperation and synergy among all institutions and sectors," she added.

As one of several energy conservation measures to cushion the impact of rising oil prices, Arroyo Thursday asked government bodies to ration the use of gas and electricity as soaring oil prices threaten to bring about energy crisis unseen since the late1980s.

But she also asked the people to remain calm as crude oil price shot up to more than 67 US dollars this week and the prices of oil products in local market have more than doubled since last year.

Source: Xinhua