May 27, 2025
MANILA – Most Filipinos still received their information on who to vote for in the 2025 midterm elections from news on television, with internet and social media being a close second according to a report from Pulse Asia.
Pulse Asia’s Pulso ng Bayan report released on Monday showed that 72 percent of the respondents have considered television as a source of help in terms of picking their candidates during the recently concluded polls, with 66 percent picking the internet.
Half or 50 percent of the respondents considered television as the medium that helped them the most; 14 percent ranked it as the second-most helpful source; and 8 percent said it was the third-most helpful source. For the internet, 24 percent said it was their top source of information, 39 percent said it was the second, and 26 percent said it was their third.
READ: Pulse Asia: Last-minute change, momentum led to off-target survey
Both television and internet, along with radio and newspaper reports, were placed under the category of news about the candidates. There are 81 percent who said that news is the top source; 64 percent said it was their second source; and 41 percent said it was their third source.
Of those who relied on the internet, 65 percent said they used social media, while only four percent relied on online news sites. For social media platforms, Facebook is the most-used, with 61 percent of the respondents picking it; followed by YouTube (18 percent); Tiktok (4 percent); Instagram (1 percent); and Twitter (0.3 percent).
Other sources
Apart from news, Pulse Asia said respondents also considered other sources that helped them the most in deciding:
- family and relatives (41 percent)
- commercial and ads (17 percent)
- friends (13 percent)
- billboards (9 percent)
- candidates’ participation in discussions and debates (8 percent)
- learn that the candidate has personally visited our place (7 percent)
- leaflets, brochures, calendars (3 percent)
- sample ballots (3 percent)
- surveys (1 percent)
- comics on the candidate’s life (0.5 percent)
- someone pays me to vote for the candidate (0.3 percent)
- text message regarding the candidate (0.1 percent)
Earlier, Pulse Asia also included in their report possible reasons as to why there was a variance between pre-election surveys and the actual results in the 2025 polls. According to the polling firm, a significant number of voters were open to last-minute changes on their preferred senatorial candidates, while some bets also failed to sustain momentum.
One factor that Pulse Asia saw was the high number of respondents who either said that they decided on who to vote for senator a week before the election (26 percent), just a day before the polls (25 percent), or on election day itself (11 percent).
This, the company said, could have opened the changes in the respondents’ answers when they were interviewed months before the elections and with the choices they made in an actual ballot.
Another issue that may have helped the variance is the supposed failure of some candidates to sustain their momentum. According to Pulse Asia, four winning senatorial candidates — former senator Bam Aquino, ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo, Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, and Senator Erwin Tulfo — all registered higher voter preferences in their May 2025 survey.
Upward trajectory
But on election day, the upward trajectory was only sustained by Aquino and former senator Kiko Pangilinan — two candidates aligned with former vice president Leni Robredo’s opposition bloc.
A lot of election observers and even netizens on social media have noticed that the survey results from Pulse Asia and other polling companies were off the mark in some spots.
While Senator Bong Go topping the Commission on Election (Comelec) final and official tally was correctly predicted by surveys, what happened below Go is a different story. Aquino, from not being included in the initial surveys’ Magic 12, shot up to the second spot, gaining 20.97 million votes.
Aquino was ranked eighth in the Pulse Asia’s May 2025 survey.
READ: When pre-poll surveys go way off mark
At third, below Aquino, is Senator Ronald dela Rosa, with 20.59 million votes. Pulse Asia predicted him to go fourth.
Meanwhile, candidates from the administration-backed Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas, which was expected to have seven to nine candidates in the winning circle, now only has six in the Magic 12. Also, all Alyansa candidates ranked below than what was initially predicted — which led experts to believe that the slate “underperformed.”
For example, the Pulse Asia survey showed Rep. Tulfo will be second behind Go, with a 48.7 percent share in the respondents’ votes. He ended up at the fourth spot.
Former Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III meanwhile was poised to be third in both Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations (SWS) surveys, but instead, slipped down to eighth. Senator Lito Lapid was ranked fourth in SWS, fifth in Pulse Asia, but ended at 11th.
Meanwhile, Alyansa candidates Senator Bong Revilla and Makati Mayor Abby Binay were ninth and 10th at the Pulse Asia survey, but they failed to win Senate seats.