Five months before the election, a whopping 1.6 billion pesos has already been spent by four presidential candidates on TV ads alone. This is according to media research firm Nielsen Philippines which made the monitoring between January 1 and November 30 last year.
This is needless to say that the official campaign period for national posts starts on February 9 alongside with vice president and senatorial candidates.
Below is the list of presidential candidates and the amount they already spent in what is considered premature campaign.
| Vice President Jejomar Binay | PHP 595,713,000 |
| Sen. Grace Poe-Llamansares | PHP 448,166,000 |
| Former DILG Secretary Mar Roxas | PHP 424,870,000 |
| Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte | PHP 115,423,000 |
| Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago | 0 |
| Rep. Roy Señeres | 0 |