Corruption, education, economy among hottest topics online during 2025 Philippine elections

May 15, 2025 , 04:39 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(May 15, 2025) — Social media was abuzz in the days leading up to and after the 2025 national and local elections — but some issues were more heavily discussed than others at this time.

From May 8 (12 a.m.) to May 14 (11:59 p.m), the issue of corruption was by and large the most discussed topic by netizens on social media related to the elections.

Vote-buying mostly discussed

Based on the Philippine senatorial dashboard created through a partnership with MQuest Ventures and Meltwater — a global leader in media, social and consumer intelligence — the topic of corruption had the highest volume of posts about it during this period at more than 5,000 posts.

These posts also had the widest online reach — the estimated audience size based on the followers of accounts posting about candidates — at 87 million users . At the same time, it garnered the most engagements, drawing around 469,000 engagement actions such as likes, reposts, comments, shares, and favorites.

Among the news reports that netizens talked about the topic include police reports on election-related incidents, and discussions on some of the senatorial candidates with regards to corruption — such as their track record, as well as their stances in addressing it. Some also talked about the poll observers from the European Union, who raised concerns about reports of vote-buying during the elections.

At a distant second, in terms of reach, are posts about employment and economic security, at more than 15 million users. The more than 1,300 posts created about it also drew 74,400 engagement actions.

This is in line with some independent pollsters’ findings that most Filipino voters are concerned about various economic issues such as jobs, food security, and prices of goods.

In terms of engagement, it is the topic of education that gained the second highest amount of buzz, drawing 188,000 engagement actions.

Many netizens discussed the passage of the free tertiary education tuition law in 2017, which one of the senatorial candidates — former senator Bam Aquino — sponsored in the Senate plenary. Moreover, some social media accounts discussed the efforts of poll workers, of whom many are public school teachers, during the conduct of the elections.

Other key topics that gained buzz online were political dynasties, energy, and health.

Elections hotly discussed online

Several of emerging keyphrases over the last seven days were related to casting of votes and results of the 2025 midterm elections. These are the new keywords gaining traction in social media and news.

As many netizens discussed the preparations for voting, as well as participating in the elections on the election day itself, keywords such as “vote,” “botohan,” “bumoto,” “election of politician,” and “election return” gained increasing use online. There were also frequent mentions of keywords that do not directly mention elections or voting, but are often mentioned in the context of it such as “seat,” “province city and municipality” and “special coverage.”

Also included in the list of emerging keyphrases in the past seven days were “former ally marcos,” “president ferdinand marcos,” and “independent minded sister imee marcos.” Political analysts and experts have been weighing in on the possible impact of voting results on the feud between President Ferdinand Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte, who is facing impeachment trial tentatively scheduled to begin under the 20th Congress.

(CD)

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