How the Rule of Law Limits Freedom in the Philippines | The Society of Honor by Joe America

See - How the Rule of Law Limits Freedom in the Philippines | The Society of Honor by Joe America





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Freedom House undertakes to survey 185 nations around the world once a year to see how they are doing in terms of freedom, where freedom is broken into two categories, Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Advocacy groups and businessmen use the information, the former to raise a voice of complaint to instigate social change, the latter to help figure out where to safely invest money.

In that regard, it is a big deal, because, for nations like the Philippines which want more foreign investment, they can discover why they are not getting it. Freedom House placed the Philippines in the “Partly Free” category in its 2014 worldwide ratings. From that, we can comprehend why foreign investment does not flow easily to the Philippines. The Philippines scores poorly in the category “Rule of Law”, and what conservative business wants to invest in a lawless society?

Here is a table of comparatives on the various categories rated. It shows the maximum score possible in each category, the Philippine score, and that of China, the US, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea:

	Max	Phil	China	USA	Maly	Japan	SKor
POLITICAL RIGHTS
A: Electoral Process	12	9	0	11	6	12	11
B: Political Pluralism & Participation	16	10	1	16	7	13	14
C: Functioning of Government	12	7	2	10	6	9	10
CIVIL LIBERTIES
D: Freedom of Expression & Belief	16	14	4	15	8	15	14
E: Associational & Organizational Rights	12	8	3	11	6	9	11
F: Rule of Law	16	5	2	14	5	6	13
G: Personal Autonomy & Individual Rights	16	10	6	15	9	10	12

Well, there is a lot of good news there for the Philippines. Comparatively speaking, Filipinos have more freedom than the Chinese or Malaysians. Also, freedom of expression is a strength, and the country gets a solid score for political pluralism and for individual rights.

The bad news is that blasted rule of law, which so many Filipinos ignore, Justice fails to enforce and judges are incapable of administering.

Let’s explore why the Philippines does poorly. We don’t have the country detail on howFreedom House answers these questions, but I’ve penciled in my own thoughts. You are encouraged to pencil in your thoughts, too . . . and even share them in the comments section.

Here are the questions that make up the evaluation, with JoeAm’s personal notation in italics: xxxx."