by Daniel Long

 

The Philippines should pursue membership in BRICS for the sake of economic diversification. Manila should have institutional access to a grouping that now represents 49.5% of the world’s population, 40% of global GDP, and 26% of global trade. BRICS is an international organization consisting of 11 member states: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. As former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has said, our country is “geographically located on a crop of trade flows.” Therefore, access to a bloc of this scale is a matter of economic survival. 


BRICS has no NATO-style collective-defense obligation and does not require its members to adopt a common foreign policy. Its institutional agenda is focused largely on economic cooperation, trade, investment, payments, and greater representation for emerging economies of the Global South, or the Global Majority, in international institutions. The 2026 Indian chairmanship places particular emphasis on cross-border payments, local-currency transactions, digital payments, and cooperation among emerging economies. The Philippines therefore does not have to accept BRICS as a unified bloc to recognize its importance as an economic platform.

The Philippines’ position as ASEAN chair in 2026 strengthens the case for engagement. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will attend the September 12–13 BRICS Summit in New Delhi at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officially in his capacity as ASEAN chair.  

Philippine officials have described the summit as an opportunity to engage major emerging economies on trade, investment, and regional security. More importantly, the Philippines is the regional exception. Indonesia is a full BRICS member, while Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are BRICS partner countries. The issue for Manila is whether it should remain outside a framework in which four other ASEAN economies are already participating.

ASEAN centrality does not require ASEAN states to avoid institutions involving major powers. Philippine participation in BRICS could bring ASEAN economic priorities into a emergingmarket forum, particularly on supply chains, infrastructure, food security, and digital payments. The Philippines would also have greater institutional proximity to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam on issues where their interests overlap.

BRICS’ financial agenda is also relevant to Philippine exposure to the US dollar. Recently, the Philippine peso hit a historic low of PHP 62.40 vs. the strong greenback. The dollar remains the dominant currency for global trade, reserves and financial markets. The priority for Manila is reducing unnecessary concentration in one currency.

India’s 2026 BRICS agenda includes greater use of national currencies and development of cross-border payment systems. According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, around 90% of transactions between Russia and BRICS nations now occur in national currencies. For Philippine companies trading with BRICS economies, the practical objective would be to create additional mechanisms through which transactions can be settled without every transaction requiring U.S. dollar conversion. Currency exposure affects import prices, corporate financing, and government debt servicing. When the peso depreciates against the dollar, Philippine importers pay more in peso terms for dollar-priced goods. A diversified payment system would reduce the number of transactions that are unnecessarily exposed to dollar conversion. The policy objective, for me, should be currency diversification.

The New Development Bank (NDB) provides a second reason for BRICS membership. It is a bank of the Global South, or the Global Majority. Established by BRICS in 2015, the NDB was created to finance infrastructure and sustainable-development projects.

In Brazil, the Pará State Water and Sanitation Infrastructure Development Project focuses on protecting drinking water, reducing pollution, and restoring ecosystems. In India, the DelhiGhaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System Project aims to improve public transport, ease congestion, and promote low-carbon mobility.

Its membership has already expanded beyond the original BRICS countries to include Bangladesh, the UAE, Egypt, Algeria, and Uzbekistan. The bank states that its membership is open to UN members and that it provides financing to both sovereign and non-sovereign borrowers. Russian Finance Minister and NDB Board of Governors Chair Anton Siluanov has said that the share of NDB projects financed in local currencies stands at 30% as of May 2026.

The Philippines has a large infrastructure-financing requirement. Railways, waste-to-energy projects, and dams require long-term capital. The NDB should therefore be added alongside the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and other multilateral lenders. Its value lies precisely in providing an additional source of financing. The NDB also provides local-currency financing mechanisms intended to reduce exchange-rate exposure in infrastructure projects.

According to CGTN, as of June 2026, the NDB had approved 139 projects totaling approximately $42.9 billion. These projects have helped increase clean-energy capacity by 2,400 megawatts, reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 14.7 million tonnes, and support the construction of 35,000 housing units, 43 schools, 1,400 kilometers of tunnels and canals, and 40,400 kilometers of roads.

For the Philippines, infrastructure borrowing denominated in foreign currencies creates currency risk. A project generating peso revenues but financed entirely in dollars becomes more expensive to service when the peso depreciates. Access to additional local-currency financing would provide the government with another instrument for managing that risk.

BRICS founding member-state China is already the Philippines’ largest trading partner. Finance Secretary Frederick Go has openly said that the economic team wants to deepen the country’s trade and investment relationship with China.

In 2025, China supplied US$38.44 billion of Philippine imports, equivalent to 28.6% of total Philippine imports, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. Philippine-China merchandise trade reached approximately US$47.75 billion, consisting of about US$9.31 billion in Philippine exports and US$38.44 billion in imports. China was the country’s largest source of imports. Finance Secretary Go has also described China as the Philippines’ most important trading partner, noting that it is the country’s largest source of imports and fourth largest export market.

This reality does not make decoupling from China desirable or practical. The objective should instead be diversification: increasing Philippine export capacity while widening the country’s sources of imports, investment, and financing. Decoupling is an obsolete and impractical way of thinking – a relic of the Cold War. The Philippines should continue to engage China where doing so serves its economic interests. China is the Philippines’ neighbor and will become the world’s largest economy. It will remain a major economic power regardless of who occupies Malacañang or the White House.  

So, the Long and the Short of why the Philippines should join BRICS is to ultimately diversify its economy in this emerging multipolar world. The Philippines is an archipelagic trading nation located at the intersection of major maritime routes. It cannot afford to put all of its eggs in one basket. BRICS offers access to major emerging markets in the Global South, alternative sources of infrastructure financing through the New Development Bank, and developing mechanisms for local-currency transactions.  

With our neighbor Indonesia already a BRICS member and Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam participating as partner countries, Manila will become an outlier within its own region if it chooses to remain entirely outside the framework. The country should seek BRICS membership while preserving its friendship with the United States, anchored on mutual respect; maintaining ASEAN centrality; and separating economic cooperation from territorial disputes with China. The objective should be to reduce excessive concentration and preserve Philippine economic flexibility in the face of global uncertainty.

The fundamental operating principle is that the Philippines should have more choices, not fewer. The primary motivation for Philippine engagement with BRICS must therefore be what is good for our national interests above all else. Multipolarity gives Manila that opportunity, and BRICS is one institution through which the Philippines can turn that opportunity into win-win cooperation and mutual development.

   

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