Camille Villar, the fourth in her family to seek a seat in the Senate, continued to outspend her rivals in advertising spending on traditional media, largely on TV and radio.
She has run ads worth P3.5 billion over 15 months from January 2024 to March 2025, data from Nielsen Ad Intel shows. The period covers half of the 90-day campaign period.
The amount is based on published rate cards — the cost of each ad that aired. It does not reflect any discount her campaign must have received, but it also does not reflect the cost of producing the ads and other costs of the campaign. (Editor’s note: We refer to the amounts as the “worth,” not the cost, of the ads.)
Presidential sister and reelectionist senator Imee Marcos aired ads worth P2.8 billion, while Makati Mayor Abigail Binay aired ads worth P2.6 billion.
Together, Villar, Marcos and Binay accounted for P8.9 billion worth of ads, or one-third of the P24 billion total ad spending over the 15-month period. They all belong to the country’s most entrenched political dynasties.
Election reform advocates have long raised alarm over the increasing cost of campaigns in the Philippines, which they said has become prohibitive for other qualified candidates who do not have access to resources.
They have urged voters to ask candidates why they are spending so much to win elections and what the “return of investment” would be for these amounts of spending.
Reform proposals have languished in Congress. “Politician-businessmen need to be disincentivized and leave elections to true public servants,” said Luie Guia, former elections commissioner now with watchdog group Democratic Insights Group.
At least P1 billion ‘worth’ of ads
Five other senatorial candidates have each aired ads worth at least P1 billion, based on published rate cards.
They are reelectionist senators Francis Tolentino, Ronald dela Rosa, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, and former Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos. Go has topped pre-election surveys.
The eight candidates account for more than 60% of the total worth of ads aired based on the available data.
The other survey leader — ACT CIS party list Rep. Erwin Tulfo — was not far behind. He aired ads jointly with his party list group, whose nominees include his wife and his son.
Combined with his individual ads, the ads were worth P875 million.
Money pours in February start of campaign
Ad spending increased when the campaign period officially started in February 2025.
Data from February and March shows that P9.6 billion out of the P24 billion worth of ads was aired in the two months alone.
It’s almost equivalent to the P10 billion worth of ads that aired from January to December 2024.
Binay was top spender during this two-month period, airing ads worth P852 million. It is higher than Villar’s P760 million.
Data for April and May is not yet available.
Other senatorial candidates caught up in spending by February, and so did the administration slate Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas, which recorded airing P480 million worth of ads.
Camille Villar also topped spending on Facebook, according to Meta’s Ad Library.
She spent over P17 million to boost her posts on the social media platform from February to April 2025.
She was followed closely former Senator Francis Pangilinan, who also spent almost P17 million to boost his posts.
Ad spenders and celebrities
In contrast with local races, the Senate race in the Philippines has been described by experts as personality or celebrity based. It is a “game of name recall” because individuals, who do not usually carry sample ballots, vote for candidates they remember inside the voting precincts.
At the start of the campaign, seven media celebrities with popularity advantage enjoyed a head start. Brothers Erwin and Ben Tulfo, reelectionist senators Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Revilla and Lito Lapid, returning senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, and TV host Willie Revillame were inside the “Magic 12” winning circle.
Pacquiao and Revillame have since lagged behind, although they remain statistically competitive.
Other candidates, notably those who spent heavily on ads, have since caught up.
The 1-Pacman Party-list group spent more than Pacquiao to promote his candidacy — P230 million compared to P74 million.
Revillame aired ads worth P12 million.
Most of the top ad spenders belong to the country’s entrenched political dynasties, except for Dela Rosa and Go.
The spending appeared to be showing results for first-time candidates Villar and Binay, but not for reelectionist Marcos, who has been caught in the middle of the political conflict between the Marcos and Duterte dynasties.
Villar’s name did not even appear in the earliest senatorial preferences and was outside the “Magic 12” winning circle until the middle of the campaign period.
She has slowly climbed her way up the survey rankings. She ranked 9-10 in the latest Social Weather Stations survey conducted in early May.
Binay has also managed to stay inside the “winning circle” and increase her numbers towards the elections.
Increasing her awareness or popularity among voters through her ads was the first step, said Guia.
It allowed Villar, through a network of election leaders on the ground, to convert them to her voters.
In the end, political machinery
Guia also credited Villar’s machinery, including her family’s network among local politicians, as the one that will deliver the votes on Monday, May 12.
Villar is the only daughter of the country’s richest businessman, former Speaker and former Senate President Manuel Villar Jr., who focused on the family business since his defeat in the 2010 presidential race. He also appeared in Camille’s campaign ads.
Her mother is outgoing Sen. Cythia Villar and Sen. Mark Villar, former public works secretary, is her brother.
The same can be said of Binay’s chances, Guia said. She is the daughter of former Vice President Jejomar Binay and sister of outgoing Sen. Nancy Binay.
“Ads are important in the early stages of the campaign. The movements in preferences as the election nears are affected more by energizing the ground support,” Guia said.
Towards the elections, however, one of the Villar companies — the PrimeWater Infrastructure Corp. — has come under intense scrutiny over its alleged poor services.
Binay has so far been largely spared from negative news. — PCIJ.org