Wednesday, November 08, 2006

2.5 per cent on a scale of 0 to 10!

The stat does not refer to the growth of our GNP nor GDP. It's the Philippines' rating on the corruption perception index (CPI) recently released by Transparency International.

To go on further, the country ranked 121st in the 2006 CPI among 163 countries worldwide - sharing the same rank with Russia, Rwanda Nepal, the Honduras, Swaliland, Benin, Gambia and Guyana. Is this something to worry about? Definitely, yes! Looking at historical records, in the 2005 survey, we ranked 117 and in 2004, the country is at number 102. Meaning we have gone down four notches this year compared to 2005, and (my golly!) 19 notches reckoned to 2004.

It seems, despite all the governance reforms put in place so far, no positive impact has been felt to combat corruption and rent-seeking activities in the bureaucracy. In the words of Senator Drilon, Senate Finance Committee Chair: "the perception index of Transparency International indicated that we are not improving at all. In fact, we are deteriorating".

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