Philippines gains 3 notches in International Property Rights Index

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines moved up to 67th place out of 129 economies in this year’s International Property Rights Index from 70th last year, amid improvements in two out of three components tracked by the report such as physical property rights and intellectual property rights (IPR).

Developed by the Property Rights Alliance which promotes protection of innovation, IPR and physical property rights, the index seeks to serve as a barometer for the state of property rights in the world by looking at three components – legal and political environment, physical property rights and IPR.

Released in partnership with the Foundation for Economic Freedom and Minimal Government Thinkers in the Philippines yesterday, the index showed the country was behind many of its neighbors in Southeast Asia.

In particular, the Philippines trailed behind Singapore (4th), Malaysia (32nd), Thailand (64th) and Indonesia (65th), but was ahead of Vietnam (83rd) and Brunei Darussalam (98th).

The index showed the Philippines’ overall ranking improved as its score increased to 5.309 this year from the previous year’s 5.217.

The Philippines’ latest ranking is a result of gains made in the physical property rights and IPR components.

In the physical property rights component which looks at protection or strength of the physical property rights system, process for registering property, and ease of access to loans, the Philippines’ rank went up to 60th this year from 63rd a year ago as its score increased to 6.548 from 6.455.

As for the IPR component which covers patent protection and copyright piracy, the Philippines climbed to the 58th spot from last year’s 62nd as its score rose to 5.705 from 5.389.

Meanwhile, the Philippines slipped to 102nd place from 95th in terms of the legal and political environment component which looks at judicial independence, rule of law, political stability, and control of corruption, as its score dropped to 3.674 from 3.807.

Overall, Finland topped this year’s index.

Completing the top five are Switzerland, New Zealand, Singapore and Australia.

Those in the bottom five, meanwhile are Yemen, Haiti, Venezuela, Angola and Bangladesh.

Property Rights Alliance executive director Lorenzo Montanari said “property rights are human rights; without them, people are restrained in how they act, how they speak, and how they participate in the economy.”

As such, having secure property rights is seen to have a link with other indicators of economic freedom and social well-being where in if people feel they can purchase, sell, and value their properties in a free marketplace, the environment would encourage entrepreneurship and civic participation.