RP among world’s most anarchic nations — UK index

The Philippines was listed among the world’s most disorderly countries landing at the bottom 20 percent or at 130th of 149 countries ranked in the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) of the British-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

At its current position, the Philippines was rated even below Thailand, at 124, which had experienced political strife involving clashes between armed troops and “Red Shirt” anti-government protesters that left almost 90 people dead, mostly civilians, recently.

It was just two notches above Myanmar, at 132, and nine positions above North Korea. In Asia, it was the sixth most disorderly country after Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

The IEP said the index gauges ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarization in 149 countries.

The Philippines fell 10 notches from its 2009 ranking at 120 and was listed one of five countries with biggest drop in its position for a year on the index.

The Philippines’ fell sharply amid a worsening security situation in several parts of the archipelago, notably a violent conflict between the Islamist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the government on the island of Jolo in the Sulu archipelago, according to IEP.

“It echoes rises in the archipelago’s indicators of internal conflict and crime,” it added.

It noted that the conflict between the ASG and government forces in Sulu escalated, with 163 conflict-related fatalities in 2009, compared with 82 during the previous year.

“The ASG continued to use kidnapping to raise its profile and hostages as bargaining tools. An ongoing contretemps between the Communist Party of the Philippines and its military wing, the New People’s Army (NPA) and the government remained violent and peace talks, initiated by Norway, were postponed,” the IED added.

It said perceptions of criminality in Filipino society rose to a score of 4, defined as “high levels of distrust in other citizens”.

Violent crime is high in many districts and armed guards are routinely deployed to defend private property, it said.

Kidnap-for-ransom is also a high risk, especially among the ethnic-Chinese community, which is perceived as wealthy and willing to pay a ransom to secure the release of an abducted relative, it added.

The homicide rate escalated, according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the proportion of the population in jail ratcheted up in 2009 to a score of 3 (fairly high, by regional standards), it added.

The index ranked New Zealand as the country most at peace for the second consecutive year, followed by Iceland and Japan.

Small, stable and democratic countries are consistently ranked highest with 15 of the top 20 countries located in western or central European countries, or an increase from 14 last year.

For the fourth year running, the country ranked least at peace is Iraq. Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan follow; which the IEP said are countries in a state of ongoing conflict and upheaval.

The IEP said the world is a less peaceful place this year, largely due to a rise in crime and civil unrest fuelled by the global financial crisis but the London institute also says the risk of outright armed conflict appears to be falling.

The index is based on 23 indicators, ranging from military expenditure to relations with neighboring countries and levels of violent crime.

The annual report said South Asia saw the greatest drop in peacefulness, largely due to increased involvement in conflicts, more deaths from internal conflict and human rights abuses.

Western Europe continues to be the most peaceful region, with the majority of the countries ranking in the top 20. All five Scandinavian nations rank in the top 10.

Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan were the least peaceful countries for the second consecutive year. Syria, Georgia, the Philippines, Russia and Cyprus were this year’s biggest fallers.

The US improved its 2010 score but slipped three spots due to the addition of new countries and the re-rating of the number of heavy weapons.

The institute estimates violence is costing the global economy $7 trillion a year.

It said a 25 per cent reduction in violence would save about $1.7 trillion a year, enough to pay off Greece’s debt and help the European Union reach its 2020 climate and carbon goals.