Corruption in the Philippines

The Philippines suffers from widespread corruption.[1] Means of corruption include graft, bribery, embezzlement, backdoor deals, nepotism, and patronage.[2]

Decline

Transparency International's 2018 Corruption Perception Index ranks the country (together with Albania, Bahrain, Colombia, Tanzania, and Thailand) in the 99th place out of 180 countries.[3]

The CPI score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 – 100, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 100 means that a country is perceived as very clean.

Transparency International-Philippines said some of the factors that contributed to the Philippines' (2.6) slight jump are the improvement in government service, and cutting red tape.[4]

Political nepotism

The Philippine political arena is mainly arranged and operated by families or alliances of families, rather than organised around the voting for political parties.[5]

Called the Padrino system, one gains favor, promotion, or political appointment through family affiliation (nepotism) or friendship (cronyism), as opposed to one's merit. The Padrino system in the Philippines has been the source of many controversies and corruption.

It has been an open secret that one cannot join the political arena of the Philippines without mastery of the Padrino system. From the lowest Barangay official, to the President of the Republic, it is expected that one gains political debts and dispenses political favor to advance one's career or influence, if not wealth.

See also

• Human rights in the Philippines
• Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines
• List of political scandals in the Philippines
• Philippines Truth Commission

General

• Crime in the Philippines
• International Anti-Corruption Academy
• Group of States Against Corruption
• International Anti-Corruption Day
• ISO 37001 Anti-bribery management systems
• United Nations Convention against Corruption
• OECD Anti-Bribery Convention
• Transparency International

References

1. Jurado, Emil (March 12, 2010). "The fourth most corrupt nation". Manila Standard Today. Retrieved August 21, 2010.
2. Conde, Carlos (March 13, 2007). "Philippines most corrupt, survey says". The New York Times. Retrieved August 21, 2010.
3. "Corruption Perceptions Index 2018". www.transparency.org. Transparency International. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
4. News, By Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN. "PH corruption going, going, but not yet gone". abs-cbnnews.com.
5. Coronel, Chua, Rimban, & Cruz The Rulemakers Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (2007); p.49

Further reading

• Philippines Corruption Profile from the Business Anti-Corruption Portal