RP further sinks in corruption survey- TI

MANILA, Philippines- Corruption in the Philippines further worsened this year, the latest report from international watchdog Transparency International revealed. The Philippines, scoring 2.5 points out of 10 in the Corruption Perceptions Index, ranked 141st along with countries such as Yemen, Cameroon and Iran, from its 131st ranking in 2007, scoring 2.3 points. There were 180 countries included in the poll both this year and in 2007. The CPI measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on different expert and business surveys. The 2008 CPI scores on a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to 10 (highly clean). Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden shared the highest score at 9.3, followed immediately by Singapore at 9.2. Also included in the top 10 least corrupt countries were Finland, Switzerland, Iceland, Netherlands, Australia and Canada. Besides Singapore, the Philippines' other peers in the Southeast Asian region got better ratings with Malaysia, 47th; Thailand, 80th; Vietnam, 121st; and Indonesia, 126th. The countries which were perceived as most corrupt were Somalia, scoring one point; Iraq and Myanmar, 1.3; and Haiti at 1.4. “Whether in high or low-income countries, the challenge of reigning in corruption requires functioning societal and governmental institutions. Poorer countries are often plagued by corrupt judiciaries and ineffective parliamentary oversight. Wealthy countries, on the other hand, show evidence of insufficient regulation of the private sector, in terms of addressing overseas bribery by their countries, and weak oversight of financial institutions and transactions," TI said. It added that corruption was jeopardizing the fight against poverty. Johann Graf Lambsdorff of the University of Passau, who carried out the Index for TI, underscored the disastrous effects of corruption and gains from fighting it, saying, "Evidence suggests that an improvement in the CPI by one point [on a 10-point scale] increases capital inflows by 0.5 per cent of a country's gross domestic product and average incomes by as much as 4 per cent." In the Asia-Pacific Region, TI said corruption remained a “serious challenge". “Overall corruption and lack of transparency, particularly in political financing, clearly remain serious challenges across the region. Out of 32 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region included in TI's 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index, 22 scored below five, indicating a serious corruption problem in the public sector. Only 10 countries scored above five," TI added. Cheryl M. Arcibal, GMANews.TV