Down, down

The Philippines dropped 16 notches in the latest World Economic Forum (WEF) World Competitiveness Report to No. 87 out of 133 countries. Singapore ranked No. 3, Malaysia 24th, Thailand 36th, and Indonesia at 54th. The Philippines was at the bottom in a list of 23 Asian countries in the earlier World Bank competitiveness survey.

Reasons for the big drop are again corruption, inefficient governance and poor infrastructure. Good examples of these are, among others, the gross corruption in Road Board projects, World Bank financed road projects in the DPWH, and the continuing questionable transactions in the DoTC, especially airport construction and approval of Marina licenses for shipping.

The top 10 most corrupt and inefficient government offices are:

1) DPWH; 2) DoTC; 3) Department of Agriculture; 4) Philippine National Police; 5) Bureau of Customs; 6) Department of Education; 7) Department of Environment and Natural Resources; 8) Pagcor; 9) BIR; and 10) Ombudsman.

Among the least corrupt are: 1) Department of Tourism; 2) BCDA; 3) DoST; 4) Peza; 5) Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas; 6) Commission on Human Rights (CHR); 7) Department of Foreign Affairs; 8) DSWD; 9) Office of the Press Secretary; 10) PDEA.

Neutral but improved are Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) the DND/AFP and the Commission on Higher Education (Ched).

Meanwhile, Philippine exports dropped 25.4 percent year on year in July while car sales for August dropped for the first time by 8.8 percent. Many stores and restaurants have closed down. With business still bad, there will be fewer substantial contributors to candidates. –Amb. Ernesto Maceda, Daily Tribune