MANILA, Philippines – A former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor said the results of the 2025 midterm elections reflect the Filipino electorate’s dissatisfaction with the Marcos Jr. administration’s economic management.

In a report for macroeconomic and geopolitical insights firm GlobalSource Partners, former BSP governor Diwa Guinigundo cited elevated food prices and growing national debt despite cooling inflation.

“The overall downtrend may not be sustained because it was achieved by extending a food subsidy, which will only be in effect for a few months, and by reducing tariff duties on rice imports, obviously for political reasons,” he wrote.

Inflation may have further slowed to 1.4% in April, but prices of meat and poultry remained elevated.

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A Social Weather Stations survey conducted in April found that job creation, food security, and controlling the basic prices of goods were among the top 10 concerns of Filipino voters.

Guinigundo also pointed out that the government deprioritized public health and education and instead redirected funds to road widening and river dredging projects in the 2025 budget.

This caused the 2025 budget to bloat to P6.3 trillion, while national government debt grew to P16.68 trillion in March.

The GlobalSource report also noted that name recall, political machinery, and the supposed use of public money to win elections no longer influenced the voters the way it did before.

“The use of public money to buy votes was a big, big turn off, especially for young voters,” the former BSP governor wrote. “Senators, after all, are elected to make laws, rather than learn how to make laws once they are elected.”

The Philippines’ gross domestic product grew 5.4% in the first quarter of the year, with government spending doubling as the Marcos Jr. administration frontloaded public projects before the election spending ban.

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For Guinigundo, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will need to outdo himself and focus on building a legacy of good economic, political and social governance to give his administration’s bets a chance in the next polls.

“Rooting out corruption in public offices is a must in order to assure the Filipino electorate that his candidates in 2028 are worth voting for,” he said.

He added, “Otherwise, the President can kiss goodbye his desire to rewrite history and absolve the Marcos family of various charges of plunder and mismanagement.” – Rappler.com