The Philippines’ ASEAN standing before COVID-19

The good news is that the Philippines has maintained its world's status as the home of the happiest people among the ten ASEAN countries, namely Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos PDR, and Brunei, and one of the top three in the whole wide world. But the bad news is that we are lowest in terms of safety index, quality of healthcare, speed of the internet, corruption, ease of doing business, and levels of wages and salaries. After the COVID, crisis, our standing has deteriorated even much more.

It is important to remember these quantitative factors and ratings according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitive Index. The overall ratings of six among the ten ASEAN countries (excluding Singapore, Myanmar, Brunei, and Cambodia) are Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and then Laos PDR. Based on the first criteria of the Human Development Index, the rankings are: first, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and then Laos as lowest. Next, based on per capita income, first is Malaysia, followed by Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Laos, and then Vietnam as lowest. The prosperity index shows that the first is Malaysia, then Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and then Laos as lowest again. On the quality of roads, first is Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Laos, and the lowest is Vietnam.

On safety of countries, surprisingly, first is Laos, followed by Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and then the Philippines as the lowest. Shame, shame, shame. Based on democracy index, we are doing well. First is Malaysia, closely followed by the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and then Laos. We have very bad image on corruption but we are number 5, and the lowest is Laos. The best records are with Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and then Thailand, in that order. On education, the best is Malaysia, then the Philippines, followed by Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Laos is lowest again. On healthcare, the best is Thailand, followed by Malaysia, Vietnam, and then Indonesia. The Philippines is second to the lowest and the last is Laos, as usual. On wages and salaries, the highest is Thailand, followed by Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines was second to the lowest which was Laos.

On cost of living, the best is Laos, surprise again, followed by Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and then Thailand. Press freedom is measured based on the degree by which journalists are allowed space by the government to express themselves sans any interference by the authorities. The best is Malaysia once more, followed by Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and the lowest are Vietnam and Laos, both communist countries. On ease of doing business, we are again doing very badly, and the rankings are: Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Laos. On gender equality, the first is Vietnam, followed by the Philippines, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, and the lowest is Malaysia, surprise. On price of petrol, the best is Malaysia, followed by Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and then Laos. On the speed of internet, the best is Malaysia, then Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Laos.

And so, prior to COVID, the best place is Malaysia followed by Thailand, Indonesia, then us, then Vietnam, and then Laos. I was told that after COVID, Vietnam has dislodged us as the fourth placer. We are now number five and Laos is not far behind. I still have to check this but indeed, on handling the COVID crisis, we might win the kalabasa award as the worst among the six. Laos is much better. What is happening to us then, in general?