Allowing the currency to move too much would have killed the economy, a central bank top official said.

"Former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Amando Tetangco Jr. helped strengthen the BSP's position. I thank Tetangco for purchasing $45-billion worth of foreign exchange in a span of four years," BSP Governor Felipe Medalla said during Bankers' Night recently.

He also said that this may have been because of Tetangco's gut telling him that difficult times, such as today, would come and these reserves would be much welcome.

Medalla said Tetangco "knew that we had to accumulate reserves for times such as this will come."

Position of strength

"From these three Governors (Benjamin Diokno, Nestor Espenilla and Tetangco), I am operating from a position of strength and that's why I say, with all these problems, the Fed raising rates aggressively, rising imports prices, imports growing faster than our exports," Medalla said. "I can see very far because I stand on the shoulders of giants."

Meanwhile, Medalla also added that after a sharp contraction that saw the economy shrinking by nearly 10 percent in 2020, "we've seen a strong recovery — 5.7 percent in the past year to 7.8 percent in first half of 2022."