INTERNATIONAL WATCHDOG:
Estrada pardon helped pull down RP democracy rating
Corruption, slays also cited
By Volt Contreras
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 18:53:00 01/17/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- The pardon of the deposed president and convicted plunderer Joseph Estrada, allegations of high-level corruption, and killings surrounding the 2007 elections helped pull down the Philippines' standing in an annual monitor of world democracies.
Citing these developments in 2007, New York-based watchdog Freedom House counted the country among the states that showed a ''significant decline'' in political rights and civil liberties last year, enough for them to be ''disqualified (as an) electoral democracy.''
The group's annual survey of 192 countries and 15 territories also showed the Philippines still stuck under the category of so-called ''partly free'' nations.
Manila has been in the ''partly free'' bracket since 2005. This assessment was then disputed by Malacañang, with Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye arguing that "those who say that there is no freedom in the Philippines are out of touch with reality.''
In its 2008 report released on Wednesday titled ''Freedom in Retreat: Is the Tide Turning?'' the group said:
''Developments in three countries -- Philippines, Bangladesh, and Kenya -- disqualified them from the electoral democracy list.
''The decline of these countries is significant given their size and the fact that two, Philippines and Kenya, were previously regarded as important additions to the democratic world and models for Asia and Africa.''
For the second consecutive year, it added, ''the survey noted a decline in freedom for the Philippines, due to serious, high-level corruption allegations; the pardon of former president Joseph Estrada; and a spike in political killings in the run-up to (the May 2007) legislative elections.''
The group said the country's ''political rights rating declined from 3 to 4'' mainly as a result of these factors. The rating system is based on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing ''most free'' and 7, the ''least free.''
Freedom House, which calls itself an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom, has monitored political rights and civil liberties around the world since 1972.
The group defines a ''free country'' as one where there is ''broad scope for open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life, and independent media.''
A ''partly free'' country is one where there is ''limited respect for political rights and civil liberties.''
Such states also ''frequently suffer from an environment of corruption, weak rule of law, ethnic and religious strife, and often a setting in which a single political party enjoys dominance despite the façade of limited pluralism.''
A country that is considered ''not free'' is one ''where basic political rights are absent, and basic civil liberties are widely and systematically denied,'' it said.
Free countries are those which had posted an average of 1 to 2.5 in the rating system; partly free countries, 3 to 5; and not free, 5.5 to 7, the group explained.
In determining whether a country is an ''electoral democracy,'' Freedom House considered the presence of the following:
• A competitive multi-party political system;
• Universal adult suffrage for all citizens; and
• Regularly contested elections conducted in conditions of ballot secrecy and reasonable ballot security.
It also considered whether there was ''massive voter fraud that yields results that are unrepresentative of the public will'' and whether the political parties had ''significant access'' to the voters through media and open campaigning.
''A country cannot be listed as an electoral democracy if it reflects the ongoing and overwhelming dominance of a single party or movement over numerous national elections. Nor can a country be an electoral democracy if significant authority for national decisions resides in the hands of an unelected power (whether a monarch or a foreign or international authority),'' the group said in its report.
''A country is removed from the ranks of electoral democracies if its last national election has failed to meet the criteria listed above, or if changes in law significantly erode the public's possibility for electoral choice,'' it added.
|
