Responding to my aunt’s post on multiply regarding murders in the Philippines, I decided to go look up the “Corruption Index” of the Philippines. I knew I had read about it a few years ago while doing some research in to Philippine politics. But I never actually went to see.
Anyway, my search lead me to Transparency International, which is a Intenternational Non-Governmental Organization that measures in various countries. I have to say… I had to scroll down quite a bit to find the Philippines. In their 2007 Annual Report, the Philippiness was:
- Scored a 2.5 on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (highly clean).
- Ranks 131, where Denmark, Finland, and New Zeland is top ranked with scores of 9.4, Singapore and Sweden are tied at 4th, Iceland, at 6th, Netherlands and Switzerland at 7, and Canada and Norway at 9th round out the top 10 least corrupt countries in the world.
- Shares this rank (131) with countries like… Iran, Libya, Nepal, Yemen.
- Ranks lower than Zambia, Vietnam and Niger (123), Uganda and Rwanda (111), Mongolia and Lebanon (99), Panama and Sri Lanka (94) and Thailand and Bosnia (84).
- But no worries it does beat … Myanmar and Somalia (last palce… 179), Iraq (178), Sudan (172), and Sierra Leone (150).
I’m speachless. Do you realize that the Philippines ranks lower than 2 countries where there have been well documented cases of Genocides in the past 20 years (Rwanda and Bosnia)? … I don’t know what else to say… Shame.