Order, security in Philippines ‘trending up’ but still the weakest — report
MANILA, Philippines — Order and security in the Philippines is “trending up,” although the country’s score was the worst in the region, a new report said.
In the 2019 edition of the World Justice Project’s annual Rule of Law Index, the Philippines’ score was steady at 0.47 on a 0 to 1 scale — where 1 indicates the strongest adherence to the rule of law and any score up to 0.50 means “weaker adherence to the rule of law.”
The latest reading placed the Philippines at the 90th spot out of 126 countries covered by the report, up three notches from the 2017-2018 list.
Across eight factors used to measure adherence to rule of law, “significant trends” in the Philippines included an improvement in “Order and Security,” WJP said.
The seven other factors are: Constraints on Government Powers, Absence of Corruption, Open Government, Fundamental Rights, Regulatory Enforcement, Civil Justice, and Criminal Justice.
Sub-factors
According to WJP, the Philippines scored 0.57 under the “order and security” factor, putting the country at the last spot in the 15-nation East Asia and Pacific region, and at 24th place out of 30 lower middle income economies.
Globally, the Philippines ranked 115 out of 126 countries tracked by WJP in terms of order and security.
Broken down, the Philippines scored below regional and income group average on “absence of crime” and “absence of civil conflict.”
Meanwhile, the Philippines scored above average on “absence of violent redress” compared with its peers in the lower middle income group and scored near regional average. This sub-factor measures whether people resort to intimidation or violence to resolve civil disputes amongst themselves or to seek redress from the government, and whether people are free from mob violence.
President Rodrigo Duterte, a former city mayor, beat his more moneyed rivals and won the race to Malacañang in 2016 promising to eradicate crime and solve his country’s drug menace in three to six months.
But human rights watchdogs at home and abroad say most of the fatalities in the government’s anti-narcotic drive are extrajudicial killings committed by cops, accusing Duterte of inciting violence and “steamrolling the rule of law.”
WJP said an effective rule of law “reduces corruption, combats poverty and disease, and protects people from injustices large and small.”
“It is the foundation for communities of justice, opportunity, and peace—underpinning development, accountable government, and respect for fundamental rights,” it added. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral
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