The Philippines slid to 120th out of 182 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2025, falling six places from its previous standing as public scrutiny over major government-linked controversies intensified, including issues tied to flood control projects.
The CPI is a global ranking produced by Transparency International, a leading anti-corruption watchdog, which gauges how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be by experts and members of the business community.
The index is based on data gathered from 13 separate sources, including international ratings agencies, and assigns countries a score from 0 to 100. A score closer to 0 reflects a perception of severe corruption, while a higher score indicates a cleaner public sector.
In the 2025 results, the Philippines recorded a score of 32, which is below the global average score of 42. The country’s score also declined by one point compared to 2024, when it scored 33 and ranked 114th out of 180 countries included that year.
Transparency International said the CPI covers multiple forms of corruption in the public sector, including bribery, misuse of public funds, abuse of authority for personal benefit, weak enforcement against wrongdoing, and systems that allow corruption to persist through excessive bureaucracy or political influence.
It also factors in whether governments have safeguards such as rules on financial disclosures and conflict of interest, legal protections for whistleblowers, transparency in public access to government information, and the ability of institutions to resist capture by powerful vested interests.
Within Southeast Asia, the Philippines ranked lower than most of its regional neighbors, including Singapore (3rd), Malaysia (54th), Brunei (63rd), Timor-Leste (73rd), Vietnam (81st), Laos (109th), Indonesia (109th), and Thailand (116th). Only Cambodia (163rd) and Myanmar (169th), which is currently under military rule, placed lower than the Philippines.
Denmark ranked first in the 2025 CPI, while Somalia and South Sudan shared the lowest placement at 181st.
