By CNN Philippines Staff
Published Jan 26, 2022 9:00:08 AM
The country’s standing in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has dropped two places, ranking 117th out of 180 countries for 2021.
According to Transparency International, the Philippines earned a score of 33 out of 100, its lowest since 2012 and below the global average of 43 and the Asia Pacific region’s average of 45.
“With a score of 33, the Philippines is a significant decliner, having lost five points since 2014. Since the election of Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines has also seen a sharp decline in freedom of association and freedom of expression, making it harder to speak up about corruption,” Transparency International reported.
The CPI uses a scale of 0 to 100, wherein 100 indicates that a country has a “very clean” record while 0 means a government is “highly corrupt.” The country scored 34 in 2020 and 38 in 2014, its highest.
Also at the 117th spot are Algeria, Egypt, Nepal, and Zambia.
Denmark, Finland, and New Zealand topped the CPI after all scoring 88. Meanwhile, Singapore led the Southeast Asia region after ranking 4th globally with a score of 85.
“Peoples across Asia Pacific have led mass movements calling for action against corruption, but little has changed in the last 10 years. Instead populist and autocratic leaders co-opt anti-corruption messaging to stay in power and restrict civil liberties to stop people from taking to the street,” said Ilham Mohamed, Asia regional advisor of Transparency International.
“With weakening anti-corruption institutions, or in some cases none at all, the region is failing to uphold human rights and address corruption,” she added.
The CPI ranked the 180 countries “by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people.”
“The CPI 2021 is calculated using 13 different data sources from 12 different institutions that capture perceptions of corruption within the past two years,” the report read.
Source: https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2022/1/26/PH-117th-global-corruption-index-2021-.html