PH still among Asian countries with weakest rule of law

PH still among Asian countries with weakest rule of law

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 15) — The Philippines is still among the countries in East Asia and the Pacific with the weakest rule of law, ranking 13 out of 15 nations in the region, according to the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index 2021.

“Regionally, East Asia and Pacific’s top performer in the Index is New Zealand (7th out of 139 countries globally), followed by Australia and Japan. The three countries with the lowest scores in the region were the Philippines, Myanmar, and Cambodia (138th out of 139 countries globally),” said the WJP, an independent and multidisciplinary organization.

Globally, the Philippines fell three positions and placed 102nd out of 139 countries with an overall score of 0.46, down from 0.47 in 2020. The score is based on a scale of 0 to 1, where 1 indicates strongest adherence to the rule of law.

The country’s overall score in the index has also steadily declined from 0.53 in 2015, 0.51 in 2016, and 0.47 from 2017 to 2020.

The Philippines also slipped to the 18th place out of the 35 lower middle-income countries. This is five notches down compared to its 13th ranking in 2020.

Here are the country’s scores in the following aspects:

Constraints on government powers: 85/139 (0.48)

Absence of corruption: 77/139 (0.44)

Open government: 71/139 (0.50)

Fundamental rights: 123/139 (0.39)

Order and security: 110/139 (0.63)

Regulatory enforcement: 82/139 (0.48)

Civil justice: 101/139 (0.45)

Criminal justice: 120/139 (0.31)

WJP also noted that significant trends in the Philippines included “deterioration in the factor measuring Order and Security.”

“In a year dominated by the global COVID-19 pandemic, 74.2% of countries covered experienced declines in rule of law performance, while 25.8% improved. The 74.2% of countries that experienced declines this year account for 84.7% of the world’s population, or approximately 6.5 billion people,” the WJP added.

The Philippine government is under scrutiny as the International Criminal Court looks into the Duterte administration’s anti-drug campaign from July 1, 2016 to March 16, 2019, as well as in Davao City between Nov. 1, 2011 to June 30, 2016. The international court earlier said it found evidence of “crimes against humanity” in the period.

The WJP covered 139 countries in its 2021 index based on national surveys of more than 138,000 households and 42,000 legal practitioners and experts on rule of law around the world.