* This is my article in BusinessWorld on April 22, 2019.
Rule of law means the law applies equally to unequal
people, no one is exempted and no one can grant an exemption. Granting
exemptions, say, in the law against stealing or murder automatically leads to
the rule of men where the powerful and the mob are exempted from penalties for
violating certain rules.
The World Justice Project (WJP) produces an annual study,
the “Rule of Law Index” (RoLI), and ranks countries based on their performance
on 8 factors and 44 sub-factors. The RoLI 2017-2018 Report involved more than
110,000 households as respondents and 3,000 expert surveyors in 113 countries
and jurisdictions, whereas the RoLI 2019 involved more than 120,000 households
and 3,800 surveyors in 126 countries and jurisdictions.
Bad news #1 is that the Philippines’ global ranking has
been deteriorating. From 51st in the RoLI 2015 Report, it is already down to
90th in the RoLI 2019 Report.
These four sub-factors are among the “downers” for the
Philippines that dragged down its overall score and ranking:
4.2 The right to life and security of the person is
effectively guaranteed.
4.3 Due process of the law and rights of the accused.
8.3 Correctional system is effective in reducing criminal
behavior.
8.4 Criminal system is impartial.
Now comes bad news #2: in this coming May 2019 Senatorial
elections, many of those in the Top 12 based on the SWS March 2019 survey may
worsen the rule of law in the country if elected. On the other hand, the
Otso-Diretso team has a good line up of human rights advocates (Chel Diokno,
Gary Alejano, Erin Tañada, Samira Gutoc, Bam Aquino), experts in electoral and
international law (Romy Macalintal, Florin Hilbay) and entrepreneurship (Mar
Roxas). I wish that many of them will win but many are not in the Top 12, not
even in the Top 18.
Independent candidate and former senator Serge Osmeña is
another good candidate who should win but is not among the Top 12 in the recent
surveys.
A number of recent legislations under the Duterte
administration are violations of the rule of law. Like the free tuition in all
state universities. If the state should give education subsidy, it should apply
this to all tertiary students and not exclude those in private universities.
A pre-requisite market-oriented reforms for efficiency
(MORE) in this case is for senatorial candidates with high respect for the rule
of law to win. Further deterioration of the Philippines’ ranking, even a
standstill in RoLI, is bad news.
---------------
See also:
BWorld 314, MORE de-bureaucratizing laws, please, April 22, 2019
BWorld 315, MORE power supply needed: Attention ERC, April 23, 2019
BWorld 316, MORE IPR protection, April 24, 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment