THE May 2025 midterm elections portend good news to many ordinary voters. It is common knowledge that the money of both national and local candidates flows like a river during the campaign season. On the day of the election itself, it makes landfall in the pockets of voters. In the 2001, 2007, 2013 and 2019 midterm elections, economic indicators showed that public spending failed to substantially boost the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in the long run. Comparative figures from the World Bank confirmed that the GDP growth (percentage) between the midterm election year and the succeeding year did not really improve too much. In fact, in most years, they plummeted.
Election spending represents artificial streams of wealth and income that flow into the economy but never really rev it up to sustain steady growth. What we have observed is merely a surge in public consumption without any long-term economic benefit to poor households. Candidates would throw money into various expenses to ensure victory such as TV commercials, social media ads, posters, jingles, decals, celebrity endorsers and other campaign materials. Wads of peso bills, ranging from P1,000 to P3,000 per voter, are given as bribes by candidates to lock in the votes needed to win their elections. At the national level, the ruling party often taps into the public coffers as a war chest to extend cash assistance, medicines, livelihood and other social services. This also goes with the opposition forces, which cash in their reserves and campaign donations to outbid the ruling party for votes.
All this spending actually does not redound to capital formation and direct investments. No factories are built, no innovations are created, and no equities are placed in the stock market. Electoral spending is fleeting and temporary, where voter recipients would often use them to buy consumption goods such as meat, poultry, rice, canned goods and cell phones. Some, unfortunately, will even use it for gambling, alcohol binges or even illegal narcotics.
Campaign periods are considered a three-month-long fiesta, where candidates unload tons of money as if there is no tomorrow. The spending spree culminates on the day of the election itself. After the dust settles, the country experiences a contraction of monetary supply and, worse, stagflation.
The Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas is then forced to raise interest rates to manage the inflation, causing a slump in business expansion, credit access and bank borrowings. It often leads to the exhaustion of foreign reserves as candidates withdraw dollars from their accounts to bankroll their campaigns.
During the 1969 national elections between President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and Sergio Osmena Jr., there was so much spending between the rival candidates that it almost bankrupted the economy. Three years later, President Marcos encountered a severe economic recession and staggering inflation in basic goods. He was eventually forced to declare martial law in 1972 to quell the growing insurgency, urban riots and rebellion in Mindanao, which were partly instigated by the intensive electoral spending in 1969.
In this May midterm election in 2025, we expect the same waste of precious funds during the electoral campaigns. Vote-buying shall be rampant, especially in impoverished local governments as election day nears. Armed goons, campaign supporters and entertainers will receive their fair share of the spending while electoral officials will also reap economic dividends from the manipulation of the electoral exercise. On the one hand, private businesses will also prosper and take advantage of the election period such as those engaged in retail, food, hotel, transportation, printing houses and other service sectors.
Unfortunately, electoral spending has no long-range impact on boosting the economy or reducing high poverty levels. It is a blip in the economy that creates more harm than good. It makes people less productive and does not generate sustainable jobs and livelihoods. Voters are turned into mendicants, and often, they use their money for consumption goods. Most of all, it motivates the winning candidates to ensure that there is a return on investment in their capital after winning their public offices.
In the final analysis, public spending during election season merely goes to waste. It is prohibitive, illicit and unnecessary. It gravitates people to the basest and most evil behavior we can imagine. And it naturally ends up making Filipinos worse off than they were before — morally and politically — further eroding the trust and faith in our democratic institutions.
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