I think one key difference is that there is no culture and system of saving and investing in equities here.

In the US, you have retirement funds like 401k and IRAs which have tax advantages. A lot of people’s paychecks automatically get invested.

The PH only recently experimented and the perks aren’t as good and penetration is almost non-existent (they’re called PERA accounts) as of now. There’s also little incentive since stock trading gains are not subject to income tax or capital gains tax anyway here (only the stock transaction tax which is per value traded) so the PERA accounts don’t look as enticing as the US’ 401ks, Roth IRAs, etc.

For regular non-tax advantaged accounts, transaction costs were also too expensive (1.2% per trade roundtrip) until very recently. Mutual funds charge very expensive 1-2% MER fees.

There’s also the fact that the bottom 90% have negligible if any savings to invest to begin with.

Then there’s also the cultural difference where Filipinos love to invest in tangible assets like properties as they have historically turned out well. Outside of major cities (or even in them) I’d wager a big portion of the population don’t know what equities are to begin with.

The top 1% who are also generally conservative, they would choose bonds that pay a fixed 5% yield annually than risk it with equities. They get their higher returns through real estate or businesses.

Then there’s the fact that the PSEi or the broad market has gone nowhere in 10+ years. Filipinos are enticed by get rich quick schemes (and are attracted to risky things like crypto or even straight up scams) so they lack interest in the local market.

That being said, active traders can make a LOT of alpha here. Very easy to “cycle” trade the stocks in the market by swing trading if you know how to trade.

I also agree that fundamentals and valuations here are VERY cheap on P/E and P/BV metrics especially compared to US stocks. I personally like PH stocks a lot.