In the last 90 days, a PR firm that promises to make “dead brands famous again” stands as one of the biggest spenders on Meta.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – A recent analysis of ad spending data on Facebook reveals that a certain “Pilipinas Today” and its related accounts have significantly outspent other political and advocacy groups in the Philippines.
In the last 90 days, 23 accounts related to Pilipinas Today have spent a total ad spending of P17.19 million ($299,100), or about 16.5 percent of the total amount spent by all advertisers in the same period, which is at P104 million ($1.8 million).
Most of the ads involve politicians promoting their supposed community work, such as Vice President Sara Duterte, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Francis Tolentino, Abby Binay and Kerwin Espinosa. In the period being studied, Pilipinas Today spent somewhere between P100 ($1.74) to as much as P9,000 ($157) per campaign. These boosted posts usually target males aged 25 to 34 and females aged 18 to 24.
Majority of the percentage of boosted contents targeted Metro Manila, while other engagements targeted regions such as Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and Central Visayas. These regions were also named as vote-rich regions, based on the 2022 elections data.
Boosted posts attributed to politicians
For one, Pilipinas Today’s main Facebook Page spent between P1.5 million to nearly P2 million of the 15 posts mentioning former senator Francis Tolentino. Some P1 million to P1.5 million were also spent separately for Makati Mayor Abby Binay and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, with 10 and eight posts, respectively.
Page history, use of ‘news’
The apparent main page of Pilipinas Today was first created in 2019 and later renamed to its current name in March 2023. The page is managed by Sartine IT Solutions, which, according to its website, is a brand and political consulting arm with a promise of making “dead brands famous again.”
The firm claims to have the technology to conduct audience study to over 40 million Filipinos “for deeper knowledge of the target audience.” Apart from the Facebook Page, the consulting firm maintains a website, also named Pilipinas Today, which contains news reports.
Independent online news MindaNews earlier flagged Pilipinas Today and all its related Facebook Pages for its apparent coordinated content to push for positive impressions to the then proposal to amend the Philippine Constitution.
Warning
In an interview, Danilo Arao, convenor of Kontra Daya, said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should act on these forms of premature campaigning.
“Nothing prevents Comelec from publicly chastising aspirants from the rich and powerful in spending millions of pesos even before the official start of the campaign period. It may even consider conducting public hearings to directly ask them questions, probably even in the company of representatives of election watchdogs who can directly confront them,” said Arao.
Arao said aspirants who are visible on social media through sponsored or boosted media content give an impression of popularity and winnability much earlier. He stressed that this can sway survey results that rely on public perception of who among the aspirants have higher chances of winning in the May 2025 polls.
As regards Pilipinas Today and other related accounts, Arao said that Meta should help publicly disclose the people behind them. Given its close coordination with Meta, he called on Comelec to investigate such accounts and to help pressure Meta in disclosing important information about them.
Transparency, he said, is an important element in ensuring credible elections. (RVO)
Disclosure: Facebook Ad Library was used to gather all the ad spending. AI tools such as Co-Pilot and ChatGPT aided the reporter in analyzing the data.
Arao is the associate editor of Bulatlat.
