A majority of Filipino adults (71%) believed that vote buying influenced the outcome of the May 2025 elections, according to a survey conducted by OCTA Research Group.
In a Tugon ng Masa (TMN) Survey, results showed that most adult Filipinos (62%) reported that they neither experienced nor personally knew of any incident of vote buying during the May 2025 elections.
However, among Filipinos who reported experiencing or personally knowing of an actual incident of vote buying, influence is highest in the Metro Manila (86%) and Balance Luzon (81%), compared to the Visayas (66%) and Mindanao (61%).
The survey also revealed that in most regions, there is no knowledge of vote-buying incidents, with the exceptions being the Cordillera Administrative Region (13%), Negros Island Region (44%), and various areas in Mindanao, which reported figures between 17% and 47%.
This suggests that the strong consensus in such regions highlights areas where transactional politics are deeply tied to perceptions of electoral legitimacy.
Meanwhile, the weaker perceptions in other regions underscore a fragmented national picture in which the influence of vote buying is recognized but not uniformly felt.
According to OCTA Research, many Filipinos who encounter vote buying see it as altering election outcomes, posing a direct challenge to the legitimacy of elections and the deepening of democracy.
The face-to-face survey was conducted from July 12 to 17, 2025, with 1,200 respondents aged 18 and above.
This survey has a ±3% margin of error at a 95% confidence level. Subnational estimates for the geographic areas covered in the survey have the following margins of error at a 95% confidence level: ±6% for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
