“The corruption issue has to be resolved it cannot be resolved because they just have to jail some people as they indicated,” said PSE president Ramon S. Monzon.
“What’s happening to our market is a confidence issue,” he added.
Where are the high-profile arrests?
Despite the public outrage, no big-name personalities or lawmakers have gone to jail, reinforcing the perception that accountability remains selective.
The benchmark PSE Index fell 7.3 percent in 2025, making it the second-worst performer among major ASEAN markets behind Thailand, whose Stock Exchange of Thailand Index dropped about 10 percent.
In contrast, peers such as Vietnam (VN-Index) and Singapore's Straits Times Index emerged as standout winners, with gains of around 41 percent and 22 percent, respectively.
The PSEi has gained 4.6 percent so far this year, closing at 6,348.1 on Friday.
PSE’s Monzon: “We cannot dictate trust”
Still, Monzon said the market’s foundations are being strengthened through structural reforms being rolled out by regulators and the exchange.
“All we can do as an exchange is provide the means. We cannot dictate confidence, we cannot dictate trust,” he said.
Stock market reforms underway
Monzon cited the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) memorandum circular expanding the eligible asset base for real estate investment trusts (REITs), which could include sectors such as data centers and toll roads, calling it “very positive.”
He added that the SEC and the PSE are also working on reducing the required public float for initial public offerings (IPOs), while waiting for comments.
Monzon said listing rules are also being made more flexible, including easing preferred public offering requirements by reducing the minimum offer size and lowering the required number of stockholders, including the institutional requirement to 200 from 1,000.
Easier disclosure rules
“We’ve tasked our IRD, our issuer regulation division, to review our disclosure rules to make it less intimidating,” Monzon said.
This includes giving listed firms more leeway on first-time and minor reporting lapses, especially those with no market impact.
“My idea let’s make it easier as long as there’s no impact on the stock price,” he said. “We’re doing this now we need to get more listings”.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
