PCIJ looks into early ad spending, Villar’s use of Facebook

CHEERS TO the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) for its two reports that focused on the Facebook campaign ad spending of senatorial aspirants for the 2025 midterm polls. Carmela Fonbuena of PCIJ showed how senatorial aspirant Camille Villar has ramped up her ads on FB, keeping up with the high spending that her family has done in over two decades of Philippine elections.

In recent years, the landscape of political campaigning in the Philippines has added significant use of digital platforms to the traditional tarpaulin street ads. PCIJ examined these changes, focusing on the increasing reliance on social media advertising aid and the escalating costs of elections. 

CMFR has noted that journalists should recall the political record and background of leading candidates, including their dynastic politics and other crucial information, such as campaign finance and spending. PCIJ’s report has taken up this task in tracking the early advertising costs already evident for the election in 2025. 

Strategic Ad Spending

The first report on October 15 highlighted the aggressive campaign strategies employed by Camille Villar, the youngest of the Villar family noted for its vast wealth and political weight. It revealed that Camille had already spent PHP 1.73 million on Facebook in just three months, from July to September 2024, even before the filing of the certificate of candidacies.

Fonbuena detailed how Villar’s strategy is aligned with the current trend of establishing online electoral presence, naming other senatorial aspirants, and their spending on Meta. The report compared her expense record with the top spender Wilbert Lee, who spent about PHP 1.75 million. PCIJ published in July 2024 a report on Lee, a party-list lawmaker and multi-millionaire businessman, who is running for the Senate in 2025.

Fonbuena recalled the successful ad campaign by her father, Manuel Villar Jr., in 2001. He ran for the Senate in the midterm elections where he ranked 14th in the initial survey but ended up seventh in the official tally after bombarding TV and radio with his “Sipag at Tiyaga” (diligence and perseverance) ads. 

A family pattern?

The second report on the next day took a broad view of her family’s electoral spending in the Philippines. Fonbuena recalled the spending made by three Villar senators – Manuel Jr., Cynthia, and Mark – over the past two decades, and the problematic trend revealed by data. Winning elections in the Philippines involves ever-rising costs for candidates. Fonbuena described how campaign expenditures have ballooned, highlighting how simply – candidates with more money invested in advertising succeed, as they gain the necessary popularity to win.

She recalled that Manuel Villar Jr. spent PHP38.5 million in 2001; two decades later, his son Mark spent more than three times the amount to campaign for the same position in 2022.

Fonbuena also pointed to the ad spending of another political dynasty in the Senate – the Estradas. She also observed other families like the  Cayetanos and Tulfos gaining more seats in Congress. 

The article raised important questions about the implications of the high cost of elections for candidates, including the issue of fairness and even the overall integrity of the political system. 

But the report also noted the impact on the democratic exercise. When only the wealthy can afford to participate, it narrows electoral participation to a small sector. Fonbuena cited former Commission on Elections Commissioner Luie Tito Guia who described the high campaign costs as “not an ideal situation” for a “genuine democratic society.”

Reviewing spending patterns through time, Fonbuena provides data-driven analysis to paint a vivid picture of the current electoral landscape, The report calls attention to the broad challenge confronting Philippine democracy as campaign spending has made the elections themselves less and less democratic.