World Bank poll: Philippines up in governance, down in curbing corruption

MANILA, Philippines - Reflecting improvements in public services, regulatory quality and other factors, the Philippines performed better this year in the World Bank’s latest Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) survey.

It scored higher on five out of six indicators against its performance a year ago, the 2014 WGI showed.

“Voice and accountability,” “political stability and absence of violence,” “government effectiveness,” “regulatory quality” and “rule of law” were the indicators under which the Philippines improved its grades. 

It scored low only under the “control of corruption” indicator.  

From 47.9 last year, the Philippines scored 52.7 in voice and accountability, with the scores ranging from 0 to 100, with 100 as the highest.

This indicator measures the perception of citizens on how they are able to participate in selecting their leaders, as well as freedom of expression and association and a free media.

For political stability or the chances of instability or violence, including the occurrence of terrorism, the country also increased its score to 22.8 from 16.6.

Moreover, the latest WGI survey showed the Philippines increasing its score on government effectiveness to 61.5 from 57.4 last year.

This indicator captures perceptions on the quality of public services, how these are dependent on political pressures and the credibility of the government to commit to policies.

At the same time, the country saw a slight improvement in its grade under regulatory quality, or the ability of the government to formulate and implement sound policies, to 51.9 from 51.7.

As to rule of law or the enforcement of rules, the Philippines scored 43.3 in the latest survey from 41.7 a year ago.

However, the country was graded lower on the control of corruption indicator at 39.9 from last year’s 43.5.

“Things going well tells us that we are doing right by our people, and that we must continue to do so,” Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said.

“We have come a long way: the gap from where we were to where we are is the strongest encouragement we have to persevere on to where we want to go.”  

The WGI report is based on surveys and data collected from various institutions, including think tanks, non-governmental institutions and private firms.

The annual report has covered over 200 countries and territories since 1996.