Corruption in the Philippines


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

Decline

's 2018 Corruption Perception Index ranks the country in the 99th place out of 180 countries.
This is better than the Philippines' 129th out of 178, ranking in 2011 with a 2.6 CPI, in Transparency International's list. 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' slight jump are the improvement in government service, and cutting red tape.

Political nepotism

is mainly arranged and operated by families or alliances of families, rather than organised around the voting for political parties.
Called the Padrino system, one gains favor, promotion, or political appointment through family affiliation or friendship, 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.