When I got invited to BPI Wealth‘s “Your Passport to Global Investing” event in Nustar, I was expecting a room full of stiff suits talking numbers over everyone’s heads. Instead I found myself in a ballroom full of CEOs, business owners, and investors, and somehow the entire thing was broken down in a way that anyone in that room, whether you’ve been investing for 20 years or you’ve never touched a mutual fund, could actually follow. I walked out with my notes app full.
The event brought together speakers from BlackRock and BPI Wealth for a full rundown on where the global markets, the Philippine economy, and even AI are headed. Here’s my recap, plus the one mindset shift I’m taking home that I think matters more than any of the numbers.
The Speakers
Nicholas Morales, BlackRock’s VP for Investment Strategy, opened with their Global Market & Tech Outlook for Q3 2026, covering everything from inflation risks to how fast AI is scaling.
Derric Tiongco, Senior Investment Strategist at BPI Wealth, took the global story and brought it home, translating what all of it means specifically for Filipino investors.
Boojie Del Prado, from Personal Wealth Management at BPI Wealth, rounded out the day walking through actual investment strategies and how everyday investors can act on all of this.
There was also a panel discussion where the audience could scan a QR code to submit live questions in real time, which felt like such a smart, modern touch for a room this full of decision makers.
Prices Are Staying Kind of High, and That’s Not Changing Soon
One of the first things Nick Morales talked about was energy and oil prices still being a source of pressure on inflation globally. Basically, disruptions in energy supply and lower inventories are making it harder for prices to cool down the way everyone was hoping.
What this means for us: don’t budget like things are about to get cheaper anytime soon. If you’re running a business, factor that into your pricing and your supplier costs. It’s not doom and gloom, it’s just… reality check mode.
But the Global Economy Isn’t Falling Apart
Here’s the more reassuring part. Manufacturing activity around the world is still expanding, not shrinking. That’s a good sign that despite the inflation pressure, the broader economy is holding up.
What this means for us: business activity globally is steady, which is reassuring if you sometimes lie awake wondering whether you’re making the right financial decisions for your business.
What the Global Story Actually Means for Filipino Investors
This part is where Derric’s talk really hit home. He broke down how the global picture connects directly to what we experience here.
- Oil: higher energy prices raise transportation and production costs, and geopolitical tensions plus supply disruptions remain key inflation risks for us.
- Inflation: it remains above target, with food, electricity, transport, and imported goods continuing to pressure consumer prices.
- Peso: it remains under pressure, with dollar strength and high import demand contributing to currency weakness.
- BSP Policy: monetary policy remains restrictive, since elevated inflation keeps rates higher for longer, which weighs on credit and investment.
The big line he kept coming back to was that market direction really depends on which of these forces eases first.
What this means for us: if you’ve felt like your peso isn’t stretching as far, or loans and credit feel tighter these days, it’s not just you, this is the exact macro picture playing out in real life.
BPI’s Own Forecasts for 2026
Derric also shared BPI’s forecasts heading into next year, covering expected GDP growth, inflation, policy rate, and the peso against the dollar. I’ll be double checking the exact figures against BPI’s official materials before quoting numbers directly, since the slide was a little hard to read live from where I was sitting.
What this means for us: growth is expected to be there, but it comes with some inflation and currency caveats still in play. Not a “go all in blindly” signal, more of a “stay informed and steady” one.
Markets Are Getting Less Forgiving
This one stuck with me the most. The talk touched on how concentration, leverage, and rising capital demands are creating a bigger gap between winners and losers in the market. Basically, strong performers are pulling further ahead, and the weak ones are falling further behind.
What this means for us: be selective. Whether it’s an investment, a business venture, or even choosing which suppliers or partners to work with, do your research first. This is the season to be intentional, not impulsive.
Strategy Translation: What to Actually Do With All This
Boojie’s session got very practical. Here’s the strategy breakdown:
- Fixed Income: the focus right now is high-quality credit, and being cautious on the longer end of the yield curve. In simple terms, stick with safer, more reliable options rather than chasing high-risk long-term bets.
- Equities: stay diversified, and focus on defensive sectors and companies with healthy balance sheets that can withstand market volatility. Translation: pick companies financially solid enough to survive a rough patch, not just ones riding a hype wave.
Funds in Focus: The BPI World Tech Feeder Fund
One fund that got spotlighted was the BPI World Tech Feeder Fund, which invests in the global technology and AI revolution through a thematic approach, giving investors focused exposure to global tech and AI leaders.
Some of what stood out:
- Heavily weighted toward semiconductors and tech hardware, with the rest spread across software, services, media, and entertainment.
- Most of the fund’s exposure is in the United States, with smaller allocations in South Korea, Taipei, and Japan.
- The historical performance chart showed strong upward momentum over the past five years, especially picking up pace in the more recent stretch.
What this means for us: if you’ve been curious about how to get exposure to global tech and AI without picking individual stocks yourself, this is the kind of fund structure built exactly for that.
Investing Globally, Simply, in Pesos
Something I found genuinely innovative: BPI Wealth’s PHP share classes let Filipino investors access global funds that are mainly USD-denominated, without having to separately exchange PHP into USD. Simple, convenient, all in peso.
One important nuance though: this PHP share class is unhedged, meaning your returns in peso terms are affected by both the fund’s actual performance and the USD/PHP exchange rate movement. If the dollar strengthens against the peso, your peso returns may be higher. If the dollar weakens, your peso returns may be lower.
What this means for us: it’s genuinely convenient to invest globally without the extra step of currency exchange, just go in knowing that currency swings are part of the ride, for better or worse. Furthermore, you genuinely don’t need a huge amount of capital or a foreign bank account to start dipping into global markets. As low as Php 1,000 is such a low barrier to entry, which honestly makes this whole “global investing” conversation feel a lot less out of reach.
Ideas in Motion: What an Actual Portfolio Can Look Like
Boojie also walked through a sample Moderately Aggressive portfolio, built for people who want long-term growth anchored on an income foundation. It splits capital roughly 70% fixed income and 30% equities, where bonds anchor stability while equities drive the returns.
The breakdown mixed domestic fixed income like government securities, global fixed income through pooled USD funds, local equities through a Philippine high dividend equity fund, and global equities through funds like the BPI Global Equity Fund of Funds and the BPI World Technology Feeder Fund.
What this means for us: you don’t need to build something complicated from scratch. There are already structured portfolio models like this one that balance stability and growth.
AI Spending Isn’t Slowing Down. It’s Speeding Up.
Back to Nicholas’s global talk for a second, because this part genuinely surprised me. AI companies are expected to spend close to $10 trillion collectively over the next five years. Not billion. Trillion.
What this means for us: AI isn’t a trend anymore, it’s becoming permanent infrastructure, kind of like how electricity or the internet became non-negotiable. If you haven’t started learning how to use AI tools in your business, now might genuinely be the time.
Don’t Just Chase the AI Hype Blindly
Multiple speakers emphasized that picking the right AI companies or funds matters way more than jumping on anything just because it has “AI” slapped on the label. Active management, as they put it, is key in access.
What this means for us: do a little digging before buying into any “AI” product, tool, or investment. Not everything labeled AI is actually good, sometimes it’s just a buzzword with a nice logo.
The One Thing I’m Actually Taking Home
Out of everything discussed that day, here’s the real shift for me.
When the economy is in a downtrend, most people’s instinct is to freeze. To sit on their money and wait it out. But if you actually understand how the market works, how business cycles move, and where the trends are heading, that fear turns into something else entirely… clarity.
You stop being afraid to invest your money, because you understand what’s happening instead of just reacting to it. And once you have that understanding, it really just comes down to a choice: low risk, low reward, or high risk, high reward. Neither one is wrong. What matters is that you’re making that choice from knowledge, not fear.
That’s genuinely my mentality going forward. Everything works out for me, because I choose to understand the landscape instead of being scared of it. That’s the real passport, knowing enough about how the world moves that you can walk into it instead of hiding from it.
Huge thanks to BPI Wealth for having me at this exclusive event at Nustar, and to Nicholas, Derric, and Boojie for making all of this so easy to understand for everyone in that room.
Padayon <3
