Philippines' Control of Corruption and Rule of Law lowest in Asia

by Ronald Jabal



The Philippines is considered a “soft state” in world governance as public sector institutions remain very week. The country ranks last in Control of Corruption and Rule of Law.

This was based on the most recent World Governance Indicators (WGI) quoted in the Philippine Human Development Report 2008/2009 produced by the Human Development Network (HDN).

Th WGI measures rule of law, control of corruption, regulatory quality, government effectiveness, political stability and voice and accountability around the world.

Based on the latest data, the Philippines’ ranking has decreased between 1996 and 2007.

Its largest decreases have been in Control of Corruption (45.1 to 22.2 – a decrease of 22.9); Rule of Law (54.8 to 33.8 – a decrease of 21).

Other rankings are as follows:

Political stability/absence of violence – 29.8 to 10.1 (decrease of 19.7)

Regulatory Quality – 67.8 to 50.5 (decrease of 17.3)

Voice and accountability – 53.6 to 43.3 ( decrease of 10.3)

Government effectiveness – 60.2 to 56.4 (decrease of 3.8)


When compared to Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines comes in dead last in Control of Corruption and Political Stability; second to the last in Rule of Law and third to the last in Government Effectiveness.

It is ranked highest in Voice and Accountability – a category where all the comparator countries fall below the 50th percentile in the world governance index.