Philippines ranked least safe country? Take survey with a grain of salt, says DOH

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday urged the public to “take with a grain of salt” a recent survey that ranked the Philippines as the least safe country in the world.

In its 2021 World’s Safest Countries report, international magazine Global Finance ranked the Philippines 134th out of 134 countries based on three fundamental factors: war and peace, personal security, and natural disaster risk including COVID-19. 

The Philippines scored 14.9 points overall, which the magazine said is made up of “one-half fundamental factors, one-third COVID-19 deaths per capita, and one-sixth COVID vaccination per capita” and were derived from data as of May 30, 2021.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the government is open to such surveys and uses them to improve.

She also stressed, however, that some of the factors taken into account in the Global Finance report were uncontrollable, such as natural disasters.

“Let’s take this with a grain of salt, pag-aralan maigi kung ano ang sinasabi ng datos, tingnan natin kung bakit kinukumpara tayo sa ibang bansa with different settings and with different circumstances,” Vergeire said in a briefing.

(Let’s take this with a grain of salt, study the data, and look at why we are being compared to other countries with different settings and with different circumstances.)

“Bagamat bukas tayo sa mga surveys na ‘to (While we welcome these surveys), let’s focus on our country, let’s focus on what we can do to help our country… let’s stop comparing and let’s just focus on what we’re doing here in our country,” she added.

Global Finance also acknowledged that the rankings and scores in its 2021 survey “should be taken with a grain of salt compared to previous editions” due to concerns on possible underreporting of COVID-19 statistics by governments.

The Philippine National Police, meanwhile, said it would take the survey as a challenge for law enforcement to work harder in ensuring peace and order.  — RSJ, GMA News