PASIG CITY, Philippines – The Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity is pleased with the Philippines’ improvement in the Global Peace Index 2022, moving up four notches to 125th place out of 163 countries.

Created by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI recognized the Philippines as one of the five countries worldwide with the largest improvements in peace and security along with Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

Over the past year, 90 countries recorded improvements in peacefulness, according to the GPI.

The GPI, which is dubbed as the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness, is based on 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators which measure the state of peace across three major domains: safety and security, ongoing domestic and international conflict and the degree of militarization.

The Philippines registered an overall score of 2.339 out of five. The closer the score is to 1, the higher the level of the country’s peacefulness.

Of the three main domains, the Philippines scored 2.855 on safety and security, 1.700 on militarization and 2.410 on ongoing conflict.

Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary Carlito G. Galvez Jr. said the improvement of the country’s GPI ranking is a testament of the national government’s steadfast commitment to push forward the comprehensive Philippine peace process

“We are very happy with the results of the latest GPI. This is an affirmation that all the peacebuilding efforts of the Duterte administration over the last six years are now bearing fruit,” Galvez said.

“This also proves that the Philippine peace process is moving in the right direction. The results of GPI 2022 should encourage the incoming administration to build upon and sustain the gains of peace,” he added.

Inspired to do more

According to the GPI, the Philippines also recorded the largest improvement in the Asia-Pacific region, driven by changes in the country’s safety and security, and ongoing conflict domains.

The report also noted that the Philippines registered its best score in peacefulness in a decade “largely driven by significant improvements in political stability, the impact of terrorism and homicide rates.”

Despite these major improvements, the Philippines still has the third lowest peacefulness score in the region followed by Myanmar and North Korea.

“Now that our global ranking has improved, we must continue to work harder so that these peace gains will be reflected in our regional rankings. The government is committed more than ever to attain a higher level of peacefulness in the coming years,” Galvez said.

The GPI 2022 showed that the Philippines also improved in the militarization domain due to the country’s commitment to peacekeeping with funding support coming from the United Nations.

Commitment to sustain the gains

Galvez acknowledged that the country’s rise in the GPI 2022 rankings is a product of the whole-of-nation, whole-of-society approach implemented by the Duterte administration to realize its vision of achieving a just and lasting peace.

The Philippine government’s peacebuilding efforts are anchored on the Duterte Administration’s Six-Point Peace and Development Agenda which is its enhanced strategy for change, and a testament of its commitment towards laying the foundations for inclusive growth, a high-trust and resilient society, and to winning peace.

To realize these goals, the OPAPRU has six major programs focused on the implementation of peace agreements with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Rebolusyonaryong Partido Manggagawa ng Pilipinas/Revolutionary Proletarian Army/Alex Boncayao Brigade-Tabara Paduano Group (RPM-P/RPA/ABB-TPG) – now known as the KAPATIRAN, and the Cordillera Bodong Administration – Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CBA-CPLA).

Also included are the conduct of community-based dialogues through the Localized Peace Engagements (LPE) as well as social healing and peacebuilding efforts under the Social Healing and Peacebuilding (SHAPE) Program; and the provision of socioeconomic projects through the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) Program.

“This is the fruit of our hard work, and we thank all our peace partners who helped us achieve these improvements. We will continue to work closely with our peace stakeholders to carry out more peacebuilding initiatives,” he said.

“As we reap the dividends of peace here in the country, we shall also be strengthening our international partnerships so that we can create a ripple effect across the globe,” Galvez added.

The GPI 2022 revealed that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.3%. This is the 11th instance of deterioration in the past 14 years.

Iceland and New Zealand remain to be the most peaceful countries in the world, followed by Ireland, Denmark, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Singapore and Japan.

“The OPAPRU, together with the security, justice and peace cluster, is committed to help raise the level of peacefulness globally. We remain open to work with more peace partners that share the same vision of advancing peace throughout the world,” Galvez said. ###

 

[Featured photo taken from the Global Peace Index 2022 report]