Bloodbath sends PSEi crashing to new 5-yr low
The Philippine stock market witnessed another bloodbath on Friday, as allegations that President Marcos was involved in the multibillion-peso corruption scandal worsened already depressed investment sentiment.
With former Ako Bicol party list Rep. Elizaldy Co’s latest revelations linking the country’s top chief, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) suffered a major blow, dropping 2.49 percent, or 142.64 points, to finish at 5,584.35—a new five-year low.
The broader All Shares Index likewise posted a significant loss of 4.13 percent, or 140.42 points, to 3,260.26.
No winners for key sectors on the last trading day this week, with mining and oil getting the biggest hit with losses at 5.28 percent.
Friday’s loss wiped out the recovery recorded in the past two days, according to Ron Acoba, chief investment strategist at Trading Edge Consultancy.
“Investors pulled back after former congressman Zaldy Co implicated President Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez in a P100-billion budget insertion issue,” Acoba said.
For Juan Paolo Colet, managing director at investment bank China Bank Capital Corp., the release of Co’s video statement “reignited governance risks.”
After months of silence despite being the hottest name in the 2025 budget and flood control corruption mess, Co revealed to the public that he fled the country following
House Speaker Martin Romualdez’s advice—which, he stressed, was a directive from the president himself.
Co said that he was ordered to keep mum on the issue, promising that he would “be well taken care of…”
“I used to believe them, which is why I did not return. I kept my mouth shut and complied. But what I didn’t know was that what they meant by ‘we will take care of you’ was that I would be used as a scapegoat in their anticorruption campaign. They made me the poster boy of their own lies,” the former lawmaker said.
Co threatened to “reveal the whole truth.”
This development, Acoba said, would result in investor sentiment “likely to remain weak.”
“With the index breaking below its 2022 low of 5,700 and setting a new five-year low, it now appears poised to retest its next major support near the pandemic low of around 4,500,” he said.
Colet also said the capital index’s chance to snap back would “depend on how the latest twist in the corruption saga unfolds.”
The market ended with 64 gainers, 133 decliners and 51 unchanged.
