By Rjay Zuriaga Castor
Candidates for the 2025 midterm elections in Iloilo are ramping up their presence on social media, particularly Facebook, to connect with voters.
In Iloilo City, reelectionist lone district Rep. Julienne “JamJam” Baronda and Councilor Rex Marcus Sarabia led in Facebook ad spending in January 2025.
A review of Facebook’s Ad Library by Daily Guardian revealed that Baronda spent PHP 13,380 on political and election-related advertisements from Jan. 1 to 31, 2025, covering 62 ads.
In the last seven days alone (Jan. 24-31), she allocated PHP 4,225 for 22 ads.
Since Nov. 1, 2024, Baronda’s total ad spending has reached PHP 32,053 for 174 ads.
Meanwhile, Councilor Rex Marcus Sarabia, who is seeking a second term, spent PHP 13,220 for eight ads in January.
His total spending since Nov. 1, 2024, has reached PHP 22,759.
Councilor Miguel Treñas, son of incumbent Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, spent only PHP 100 on Facebook ads since Jan. 1.
His lone promoted post was for Barangay Connect, a community engagement initiative in Barangay San Pedro, Molo.
A review of his Facebook Ad Library showed that his last recorded ad spending was in July 2024.
Other Facebook pages managed by candidates and monitored by Daily Guardian did not run any ads related to social issues, elections, or politics in the last 30 days, or the pages are not currently running ads.
Pages with no active ad spending include those of Iloilo City mayoral candidate Raisa Treñas-Chu and reelectionist Vice Mayor Jeffrey Ganzon.
Both candidates are running under Team Uswag, the political party of the incumbent mayor.
Although most candidates have not recorded ad spending in recent months, Daily Guardian has tracked two active pages endorsing the city’s rival political groups: Team Uswag and Team Sulong-Gugma.
Iloilo Finds, created on April 4, 2024, has been actively promoting the Uswag slate. Meanwhile, a page named Sulong GUGMA Iloilo has posted content supporting the Sulong-Gugma slate, which is led by Baronda.
