Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra assured on Friday, Oct. 15, “the government will exert greater efforts to uphold and promote the rule of law in our country.”
Guevarra made the assurance after global think tank World Justice Project (WJP) was reported to have ranked the Philippines at 102 from among 139 countries on the rule of law.
He said he has yet to see the WJP report and its basis in ranking the Philippines.
“But from where I stand, I can see that except for a few sensational cases, the general crime rate in our country has been on a downtrend in recent years, and that the government has been addressing reported violations of human rights and alleged abuses in the conduct of the campaign against illegal drugs,” he pointed out.
“Our law enforcement, prosecutorial, and judicial institutions, although imperfect like any other human institutions, have been functioning as they should,” he stressed.
In the 2021 Rule of Law Index released this week, WJP – based on published reports -- said the Philippines slipped down three places compared with its ranking in 2020.
Decreasing by 2.9 percent, the index showed that the Philippines only had an overall score of 0.46, WJP said.
In the East Asia and Pacific Region, the Philippines placed 13 among 15 countries, it also said.
Reports stated that WJP’s Rule of Law Index covers 139 nations and is based on national surveys of more than 138,000 households and 4,200 legal practitioners and experts to measure "how the rule of law is experienced and perceived worldwide."