Referendum vote favors PBBM

Analysts are taking stock of the likely result of the 12 May 2025 elections which is shaping up to be a majority win for the administration in the Senate race. Voters will elect 12 senators and 254 district representatives, as well as governors, mayors and other local officials.

President Bongbong Marcos will have another three years in office. Based on current surveys, majority of the administration’s senatorial bets are in the top 12.

If the trend will be consistent leading up to the polls, we could see the continuation of a legislative body supportive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s economic reforms, similar to what we saw in the first half of Marcos’ term, according to global investment bank Maybank.

For the last three years, the President’s reforms were focused on inviting more investments.

“This started with Maharlika, the sovereign wealth fund, to the passage of other reforms such as the Ease of Paying Taxes, the modernization of the tax system, and CREATE More to streamlining and providing more incentives to investors,” noted Maybank in a report.

These are in addition to the 99-year land lease for foreigners bill that was recently approved by the House of Representatives. Note that there are other priority bills by the LEDAC, such as the reform of the Philippine capital markets and the Right-of-Way Act, the bank’s report stated.

Another positive factor was that President Marcos managed to sign the 2025 national budget before the end of 2024.

“This avoids a reenacted budget, which would have been detrimental to the Philippines’ economic growth. The 2025 budget is 10 percent higher than the budget for 2024 and equivalent to 22 percent of the projected 2025 gross domestic product (GDP).

“From the currently available data, the increase in the budget is coming from the significant rise in debt servicing. There is a bump up in economic services and defense spending,” the report stated.