“Like they said, though. You can take a man out the hood. But you can’t take the hood out the man”
—Ez Mil

Back to The Philippines!

“Ang buhay ay parang gulong, minsang nasa ibabaw, minsang nasa ilalim.
Life is like a wheel, sometimes you’re on top, sometimes you’re at the bottom.”

— Filipino Proverb

The country where I was born.

The Philippines, long known as the Pearl of the Orient, was once among Asia’s most promising economies, even called the Tiger of Asia in the 1960s, until it no longer was.

Manila, its capital, remains as vibrant as ever. Its streets pulse with energy, filled with people chasing opportunities and working tirelessly to provide for their families. That perseverance carries faint echoes of what could have been: a nation once poised for prosperity and greatness, capable of reclaiming its former “Tiger of Asia” status, yet heartbreakingly held back by decades of corruption, mismanagement, and missed chances.

And yet, beneath those scars lies the Filipino spirit that refuses to fade.

My visit to the Philippines and its stock market exchange wasn’t just another stop in my financial journey; it was a reminder that true progress doesn’t begin in trading floors or market charts, but in rebuilding trust in governance, in public institutions, and most importantly, in one another. 

Ang Pilipinas: A Testament to Endurance and Disillusionment

“Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan, hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.
He who does not look back at where he came from will not reach his destination.”

— Filipino Proverb

During the Imperial Age, the Philippines, like much of Southeast Asia, was colonised by a Western power. For us, it was the Spanish Empire.

For over 300 years, the Philippines was under Spanish rule. Like the rest of the colonised world, we experienced systemic exploitation, oppression, and the destruction of indigenous societies, all for the sole benefit of the colonisers.

Through centuries of struggle and revolution against the Spanish Empire, the Philippines finally gained its independence in 1898. Heroes were remembered, martyrs of faith and ordinary people alike, who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of our land.

Among them stood one of the most celebrated Filipino heroes, José Rizal. He fought not with guns or blades, but with pen and paper. His words sparked minds and movements. He became our national hero, and through his final poem Mi Último Adiós (“My Last Farewell”), the Philippines came to be known as the Pearl of the Orient. It was his last work before his execution. It is a farewell to his country and a reminder of the beauty that freedom could bring.

A new horizon seemed to appear after independence from Spain. But the hardship didn’t end there. Spain sold the Philippines to a rising imperial power, the United States of America, for $20 million USD in 1898—that’s roughly $780 million today, and roughly ₱45 billion as of this writing.

From there, a three-year war (1899–1902) broke out because the Americans refused to grant the Filipinos what they had long fought for: true national independence. Between 1902 and 1935, the Philippines went through the American colonial period. This was marked by civil governance, social reforms, and a gradual transition toward self-rule. In 1935, the Commonwealth of the Philippines was established, with its first president leading a 10-year path toward full independence.

Then history played its tricks again, this time, not just in the Philippines but across the world.
World War II began in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. While Europe burned, an Asian imperial power rose to challenge the West: Japan.

In 1942, Japan invaded and occupied the Philippines, as it did much of Southeast Asia. This pushed the dream of independence even further away. For three long years, Japan ruled the archipelago. In 1945, with the help of the United States and its Allied forces, the Philippines was liberated. Japan’s empire collapsed, Nazi Germany fell, and the war finally ended.

A new dawn emerged. On July 4, 1946, the United States officially recognised the Philippines as an independent nation.

From that point on, the country began carving its own path. By the 1960s, the Philippines was among the fastest-growing economies in Asia, its industries thriving, its people hopeful, its standard of living rising. Yet even amid progress, a darkness remained: corruption.

Since 1946, our political system has been marked by recurring instability and greed, sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant, but always persistent.

And today, that same problem still plagues us. A nation that continues to endure, to persist, and to survive, hoping to be free from the shackles of the decades of suffering placed not by foreign hands, but by our own. Powerful people of this country who forgot (I would like to think this is the case, rather than the idea that they didn’t care) what our ancestors sacrificed for.  

It seems the colonisers are no longer outsiders. They are among us.

Over a century ago, Spain sold the Philippines to the United States for what is now about ₱45 billion as of this writing. Today, one of our own sold the lives and safety of fellow Filipinos ranging from ₱500 billion to ₱1 trillion, in exchange for luxury, greed, and pride.

And that’s just one case of corruption that came to light. Imagine how many more remain buried in silence.

A Filipino Proverb once wisely said, ‘Walang nakasisira sa bakal kundi sariling kalawang. Nothing destroys iron except its own rust.‘

Anyway, enough of that, this has now become a political rant when this is supposed to be about finance and investing. But hey, there are still numbers involved. We were once bought by the United States for ₱45 billion (adjusted for inflation and current exchange rate), and now, around ₱500 billion to ₱1 trillion has been stolen from us by our own. That’s real life, current news, and financial content right there, all in one! Hahaha!

This should be a Netflix documentary. Political corruption from the far east. It has a nice ring!

Oh, Philippines! 🇵🇭

Gold, Galleons, and the Philippine Peso: How Our Currency Was Forged

Money tells stories, not just of numbers and trade, but of power, struggle, and survival. And in the Philippines, the peso (or piso) carries all of that.

Before the Spanish even set foot on our shores, gold already flowed freely in trade. Our ancestors used piloncitos, tiny bits of gold, and barter rings to buy and sell. Gold was always trusted, not just in Asia but all parts of the world. Then came the galleons, and with them, the beginning of imperialism.

Under Spain, the peso de ocho, the famous “pieces of eight”, became the standard. For over three centuries, the Philippines used coins shipped from Mexico and other Spanish colonies via the Manila Galleon trade. The irony? Wealth came in, only to flow right back out. The system wasn’t built for Filipinos to prosper; it was built for Spain to profit.

By the 1800s, Spain began minting coins locally, and the first bank, El Banco Español Filipino de Isabel II, was born. It issued the peso Fuerte, which was the first paper currency in the country. For the first time, we were seeing the idea of a national financial identity take for, but it was still under foreign rule.

Then the Americans arrived, not as liberators, but as the next owners. After buying the Philippines from Spain in 1898 for what’s now about ₱45 billion (adjusted for inflation and current exchange rate) they introduced the US-Philippine peso, pegged to gold, then to the dollar. Once again, we were tied to someone else’s economy.

Then World War II struck, and Japan flooded the country with its so-called “Mickey Mouse money.” Inflation exploded, savings vanished, and faith in paper money collapsed.

When independence was finally recognised in 1946, the Philippines faced the impossible task of rebuilding trust, not just in government, but in the peso itself. Three years later, in 1949, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) was born to manage the country’s currency and monetary policy. The peso was fixed at ₱2 to the US dollar.

But as decades passed, the same old story returned: political instability, corruption, and mismanagement. The peso floated, sank, and rose again, reflecting not just market forces, but our nation’s own uncertainty.

Then came 1993. The BSP was reborn as an independent central bank, free from government interference, focused solely on price stability and trust, which is the same for most central banks worldwide.

Today, the Philippine peso floats freely in the global market, shaped by trade, remittances, and the everyday belief of millions of Filipinos who work, save, and invest in it. From gold dust to digital wallets, the peso’s story is a tale of endurance, reinvention, and quiet resilience.

Through centuries of colonisation, wars, and crises, one thing has always stayed the same: the Filipino’s ability to adapt. The peso may rise and fall, but it never disappears, much like the spirit of the people who use it.

The story of our currency isn’t just about money; it’s about who we are.

So with this, let’s learn to make the most of the currency we’ve earned through hard work, patience, and diligence. Every peso counts, not just to help our families survive, but to guide us toward a life of progress and prosperity.

To the Philippine Stock Exchange we go! 🇵🇭

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE): Built to Endure

Here’s the thing: the Philippine Stock Exchange established in 1927, is the sixth-oldest in Asia, and the second oldest in Southeast Asia. However, it wasn’t called the Philippine Stock Exchange back then.

So, when someone tells you that stock market investing in the Philippines is a “new thing,” tell them they’re wrong, because our stock market is now 95 years old. In fact, the Philippine Stock Market might actually be older than that person’s grandparents. Hahaha! 😂

(📝 Note: it should technically be 98 years old, but operations were suspended for three years during the Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945.)

Now, let’s rewind the clock a little. Not many Filipinos know this, but our country once had two stock exchanges, and these two weren’t exactly best of friends.

The Manila Stock Exchange (MSE) came first, established in 1927 in Binondo. Then, after 36 years, in 1963, the Makati Stock Exchange (MkSE) was founded. And just like that, the Philippines entered the dual exchange era.

Both bourses traded shares of public companies, sometimes even the same ones, but at different prices. This created opportunities for savvy investors to profit from the discrepancies, a practice known as arbitrage. But for everyone else, it was confusing and messy. Instead of building confidence in our capital market, the rivalry between the two exchanges fueled division and uncertainty, especially among foreign investors who couldn’t make sense of our fragmented stock exchange system.

Then came December 1992. President Fidel V. Ramos called for the unification of the two exchanges to strengthen the country’s competitiveness and credibility in the region.

As one old UPI article reported:

“’The president stressed the country must have a common and unified stock exchange market,’ a presidential palace statement said.

Analysts said the existence of twin stock exchanges in a small market like the Philippines has confused foreign investors because the bourses usually report different closing prices for the same issues.

‘The pace (of the unification process) has been slow and this hampers our chances to attain development,’ Ramos told the stock market officers.

Talks for the merger of the two bourses have been bogged down by, among others, disagreements over the site of a building to house the unified market.

‘There are more relevant policies to be polished and matters to be discussed comprehensively than arguing about the supposed site,’ Ramos said.

Makati Stock Exchange head Eduardo Lim pledged to talk with his counterpart at the Manila Stock Exchange, Roberto Cojuito, to speed up the process.

They said a merger would also facilitate the expansion of the domestic capital market.”

^{https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/12/01/Ramos-urges-a-single-Philippine-stock-exchange/7563723186000}

Fidel V. Ramos was right. A unification is required.

After 29 years of competition, the Manila and Makati Stock Exchanges finally issued a joint declaration of unification under the Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. The goal was simple but powerful. To consolidate logistics, modernise and develop our capital markets.

And so, the two exchanges merged, which formed the Philippine Stock Exchange as we know it today. The PSE now stands tall in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

But here’s where it gets even more impressive.

The Philippine Stock Exchange has remained open and resilient — except during the Japanese occupation — through some of the darkest and most chaotic moments in our nation’s history.

Think about this. It stood firm through:

• The Peso Devaluation under Diosdado Macapagal (1962)
• The Balance of Payments Crisis (1970)
• Martial Law under Ferdinand Marcos Sr. (1972–1981)
• The Assassination of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. (1983)
• The Debt Crisis and Capital Flight (1983–1986)
• The EDSA People Power Revolution (1986)
• Series of Coup d’etat Attempts (1987–1989)
• The Luzon Earthquake (1990)
• The Mt. Pinatubo Eruption (1991)
• The Asian Financial Crisis (1997)
• EDSA II (Estrada Ouster, 2001)
• The Oakwood Mutiny (2003)
• The Global Financial Crisis (2008)
• Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan, 2013)
• Duterte’s War on Drugs and Political Turbulence (2016)
• The COVID-19 Pandemic (2020)
• And the ongoing challenges of high inflation, peso depreciation, corruption scandals, and political tension (2022–present)

An emerging market that’s been battered, bruised, and yet still standing.

Despite wars, a dictatorship, financial crashes, and natural disasters, the Philippine Stock Exchange remains operational. Just like the Filipino people it represents, wounded, tested, but never defeated.

The Philippine Stock Exchange 2025

“Habang may buhay may pagasa.
While there is life, there is hope.”

— Filipino Proverb

In 2025, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) stands with a market capitalisation of roughly $260 billion, representing 288 listed companies.

It is now a shadow of its former glory days.

Back in January 2018, the exchange’s market cap was around $350 billion, its highest in history. But that changed, slowly and painfully, due to several factors: the COVID-19 pandemic, soaring inflation, and, most recently, political corruption.

Over the past few months, a flight of capital has become evident. Foreign investors have started to pull out, while even local investors, discouraged and frustrated, are now exploring opportunities elsewhere, such as foreign assets and cryptocurrencies.

Personally, though, I still have confidence in our businesses and capital markets. Politics is a different beast, but whether we like it or not, it’s inseparable from finance. In the end, everything ties back to trust. The integrity of our institutions and the people running them.

As for what lies ahead, only time will tell. I project that in the short to medium term, the underperformance of the Philippine Stock Market may continue. The real question is, will it stretch to the long term? Like more than 10 years? no one knows.  

Now, let’s talk about something a little different.

In terms of financial education, the Philippine Stock Exchange doesn’t have an interactive museum, unlike the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) or the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It does, however, have its own museum, though access requires special permission. If you’d like to visit or learn more, you can request entry through the PSE’s official website:

^{https://www.pseacademy.com.ph/the-stockmarket/pse-museum}

That said, here’s some good news. The PSE has its own YouTube channel, offering educational videos about investing, the economy, and the latest business updates. It even features interviews with key figures in the market, something I enjoy as it gives additional on-the-field insights, on what’s happening on the ground and inside businesses.

^{https://www.youtube.com/@ThePhilippineStockExchangeInc}

Yes, the Philippine Stock Exchange may be lagging behind its Asian peers right now. Political instability has taken the whole country down. But despite it all, I wouldn’t bet against it. History has shown the resilience of both the exchange and, most especially, the Filipino people.

I remain hopeful. Fifteen per cent of my total investment portfolio is still in the Philippines. It is a position I’ve held since 2013, and I have no plans to sell.

Because I Believe.
Because We Fight.
Laban Pilipinas. 🇵🇭

📝 Note: I’ve written a separate blog explaining why the Philippine Stock Market hasn’t grown as much as it should have, and a book that tells my personal investment journey, from the Philippines to the global markets. Both are available through the links below.

Zero to Hero—The Rookie Investor’s Manifesto: Building Your Wealth From The Ground Up Through Stock Market Investing

The Philippines Stock Exchange Index (PSEi)

Every country with a stock market has its own benchmark index that represents its entire stock market. And for the Philippines, it is the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi), also known as the Philippines Stock Exchange Composite index.

It’s made up of the 30 biggest and most actively traded public companies in the country. It serves as the primary indicator of the overall health and performance of the Philippines’ stock market and economy.

Using November 2025 data, here are the ten largest companies in the PSEi based on market capitalisation.

Company	Ticker Symbol	Industry	Quick Note
International Container Terminal Services, Inc.	ICT	Transporatation	A Philippine-based global port management company operating terminals across Asia, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. R
SM Investments Corporation	SM	Industrial Conglomerates	A leading Philippine conglomerate with core interests in retail, property development, and banking. It serves as the parent company of major brands such as SM Retail, SM Prime, and BDO.
BDO Unibank, Inc.	BDO	Banking	The largest bank in the Philippines in terms of assets, loans, and deposits. It offers comprehensive financial services and maintains the widest branch network in the country.
Manila Electric Company	MER	Electric Utilities	The largest electric distribution utility in the Philippines, serving Metro Manila and several provinces in Luzon. It is a key player in the country’s energy and infrastructure sectors.
SM Prime Holdings, Inc.	SMPH	Real Estate Management and Development	One of Southeast Asia’s largest integrated property developers. Its portfolio includes shopping malls, residential projects, commercial buildings, hotels, and leisure developments.
Bank of the Philippine Islands	BPI	Banking	A major universal bank and one of the oldest financial institutions in Southeast Asia. It provides diversified financial services and is known for its emphasis on digital banking innovation.
Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company	MBT	Banking	One of the Philippines’ largest universal banks, offering corporate, commercial, and consumer banking services. Widely regarded for its financial strength and stability.
Ayala Land, Inc.	ALI	Real Estate Management and Development	The real estate development arm of the Ayala Group. It is known for large-scale master-planned communities, premium commercial districts, residential properties, and mixed-use estates.
Ayala Corporation	AC	Industrial Conglomerates	One of the oldest and most diversified conglomerates in the Philippines, with interests spanning real estate, banking, telecommunications, energy, healthcare, and logistics.
PLDT, Inc.	TEL	ireless Telecommunication Services	The country’s largest telecommunications and digital services provider. Through its mobile subsidiary Smart Communications, it plays a central role in national connectivity and digital infrastructure.

To Sum It Up

“Ang kapalaran ay nasa kamay ng tao.
Destiny is in the hands of man.”

— Filipino Proverb

There’s a reason I still hold my investments in the Philippines, even when others have walked away. This is my country. My identity. Maybe that makes me biased, sure—but it also makes my conviction firm.

Corruption has dragged us down for decades. Some call it “bad,” others call it “horrible.”

Bad corruption is when officials steal a portion of public funds, yet the projects still push through. The country still gains something. Growth still happens, even if weakened.

Horrible corruption? That’s the kind that bleeds a nation dry. That’s when people in power take nearly everything, leaving nothing behind. No projects. No progress. No future.

If economic and financial indicators were to point that we’re approaching that level, true, unchecked, horrible corruption, combined with slowing private-sector growth, that’s when even I would pull out.

Right now, I believe we’re somewhere in between. Not hopeless, but not healthy either. And the roots of this problem go deeper than any single politician or administration. It’s a problem passed down through the decades.

Which brings us back to the title of this blog: “The Pearl of the Orient: Can the Philippines Overcome Corruption & Instability?” The answer isn’t simple. It’s layered, complex, and personal. Overcoming isn’t a leap; it’s a slow and steady push toward progress.

But change doesn’t only begin in Malacañang or the House or the Senate. It starts with ordinary people who refuse to look away. People who choose to lead themselves well, at home, at work, in their communities. It’s taking responsibility, staying accountable, and showing genuine concern for others that will help our nation move toward real change and lasting progress.

The Philippines has been broken before, and it has risen before. History has proved that.
And it will rise again.

So I hold.
I wait.
I hope.

Stock Stops: Sixth Stop Passport Stamped!

If you want to know more about the stock exchanges I’ve visited and plan to visit. See my Stock Stops page, where I shared details about my lifetime intention to visit each country with a stock exchange.

It is where my passion for finance and investing crosses with my increasing curiosity about the world.

“Life is about creating and living experiences that are worth sharing.”

— Steve Jobs

Stock Stops: Where Travel Meets the Stock Exchanges

This blog is for informational purposes only and not a Financial Recommendation. Not all information will be accurate. Consult an independent financial professional before making any major financial decisions.