‘Stagnant’: Philippines drops to 115th out of 180 nations on corruption index

The Philippines has further dropped in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), ranking 115th out of 180 countries in 2020 from its previous rank of 113th in 2019.

In the latest study by global coalition Transparency International, the Philippines once again scored 34 points on a scale where 0 is “highly corrupt” and 100 is “very clean.”

The country’s score is lower than the international average of 43 points and the regional average of 45 points.

“With a score of 34, efforts to control corruption in the Philippines appear mostly stagnant since 2012. The government’s response to COVID-19 has been characterized by abusive enforcement, and major violations of human rights and media freedom,” Transparency International said.

According to Transparency International, the CPI 2020 is calculated using 13 data sources from 12 institutions "that capture perceptions of corruption within the past two years.”

The coalition said the report showed that corruption not only undermines the global health response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) but contributes to a continuing crisis of democracy.

Denmark and New Zealand topped the 2020 CPI with scores of 88 points, followed by Finland, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland with scores of 85 points, each.

Meanwhile, South Sudan and Somalia scored the lowest with 12 points, followed by Syria with 14, and Yemen and Venezuela with 15 each.

“Like previous years, more than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of just 43. The data shows that despite some progress, most countries still fail to tackle corruption effectively,” Transparency International said.

“In addition to earning poor scores, nearly half of all countries have been stagnant on the CPI for almost a decade. These countries have failed to move the needle in any significant way to improve their score and combat public sector corruption,” it added.

To fight the virus and stop corruption, Transparency International advised countries to strengthen oversight institutions; ensure open and transparent contracting; defend democracy and promote civic space; and publish relevant data and guarantee access.

One of President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign promises was to rid the country of corruption within months of taking office. In January 2020, during the release of last year's lobal corruption index, Malacañang denied that his administration's campaign against corruption has been a failure.

Last October, Duterte ordered the inter-agency task force led by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to investigate corruption in the entire government. — BM, GMA News