Philippines improves rank in corruption perception index

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines improved its score and ranking in the Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index 2013 which ranked 177 countries from 'highly corrupt' to 'very clean.'

The Philippines ranked 94th this year with a score of 36, up from last year's 105th with a score of 34. The index scores countries from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Last year, the Philippines jumped by 24 places from 129th in 2011.

Among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the country was behind Singapore (5th), Brunei (38th) and Malaysia (53th) but ahead of Thailand (102nd), Indonesia (114th), Vietnam (116th), Laos (140th) Myanmar (157th) and Cambodia (160th). It shared the position with Algeria, Armenia, Benin, Colombia, Djibouti and India.

Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden and Norway topped the list while South Sudan, Sudan, Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia were at the bottom.

The report showed that no country garnered a perfect score (the highest this year was 91), and two-thirds of countries scored below 50. The organization noted that the results this year indicate a serious, worldwide corruption problem.

"It is time to stop those who get away with acts of corruption. The legal loopholes and lack of political will in government facilitate both domestic and cross-border corruption, and call for our intensified efforts to combat the impunity of the corrupt,” said Huguette Labelle, chair of Transparency International.

Transparency International is non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corruption in international development.