Op-Ed: Comparative Election Spending: Philippines vs. New York

The Philippine law on synchronized elections, known as Republic Act 7166, stipulates that a candidate seeking the office of President or Vice President can only spend no more than P10 ($0.22, US) per registered voter during the official campaign period.

With an estimated 51.3 million voters, including overseas absentee voters (OAVs), from a population of around 91.8 million trooping to the polls on May 10, 2010, a Filipino candidate for either of the two highest positions is allowed only to spend a maximum of P513 million ($10.9 million, US). To run for New York City (NYC) mayor, in comparison, is many times more expensive. When Michael Bloomberg, 34th in the world’s Forbes list, ran for his first term as Big Apple mayor, expense estimates for his win cost his pocket around $350 million (16.5 billion, Philippine peso), about one percent of the country’s 2010 national budget. He spent $108 million in his bid to win a third mayoralty term. Geographically, NYC has only an area of 6,720 square miles compared to the Philippines’ 115,830 square miles, while population-wise, NYC has 18.8 million residents, a fourth bigger than Metro Manila’s 13-million inhabitants. Nationally, the Philippines has 91.8 million people, according to the 2007 census. In terms of income, NYC’s gross metropolitan product (GMP), the highest regional tally in the entire United States, is an annual $1.13 billion (P53.1 billion, Philippine peso). The Philippines’s gross domestic product (GDP) is $166.9 million, the 47th largest in the world. According to recent AGB Nielsen figures, Sen. Manuel Villar, a billionaire Filipino real estate developer listed by the Forbes magazine, between February 9, 2010 and March 2, 2010, had already logged P120 million ($2.6 million, US) in TV advertising exposures. Inclusive of his expenditures during the pre-campaign period from November 1, 2009, as Nacionalista Party candidate Villar has already shelled out over P1.3 billion ($27.7 million, US), the equivalent of the money so far spent by four other rival presidential candidates. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), taking stock of the high cost of ad placement and the volume of ads exposed on TV, said the May 2010 elections should be considered as “the most expensive elections ever in the Philippines.” Already, with still two months left to campaign before May 10, 2010, Election Day, the total expense of all national candidates in terms of political ads has breached the P2-billion (442.6 million US) mark. In short, running for city mayor in New York is three times more expensive than the collective logistics poured by national candidates in a national election in the Philippines. Bloomberg spent millions of dollars in his first try for a mayoralty position that only earns US$195,000 (P9.2 million, Philippine peso) while Villar is set to breach record electoral spending in the amount of P3-billion mark ($63.8 million, US) to win the presidency which carries an annual compensation of only P500,000 ($10,635, US). Like Bloomberg, Villar, if he wins, will likely receive only a token salary or donate his remuneration in its entirety to a charitable institution.