Sea disputes, internal conflicts drag PH global peace index ranking

The maritime disputes over the contested West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) have pulled the Philippines’ ranking in the Global Peace Index, a report by Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) said.

From 134^th in 2014, the Philippines dropped seven notches to 141 this year, second to the last in the Asia-Pacific region just preceding North Korea.

“The South China Sea remains a potential area for conflict, with countries involved in the dispute (China, Vietnam and the Philippines) all showing a worsening of their scores in the 2015 index,” the report said. “Although the likelihood of further military skirmishes in the disputed waters is high, a large-scale military engagement remains unlikely.”

“The continuing conflict risks intervention from China, which would escalate the situation further,” it added.

The botched Mamasapano operations in Maguindanao that killed police commandos, members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and civilians had also been attributed to for the downgrade, as the report cited “an escalation of internal conflicts between the government and rebel groups occurring late in the measurement period.”

The country also fared low in the violence containment costs per person, ranking 128^th out of 132 countries. The Philippines was also the 15^th least peaceful nation in terms of ongoing domestic and international conflict domain.

In societal safety and security domain, the Philippines was also among the least peaceful countries.

Iceland emerged as the most peaceful country in the world, followed by Denmark, Austria, New Zealand, Switzerland, Finland, Canada, Japan, Australia and Czech Republic.

Syria, meanwhile, remained the least peaceful country in 2014, followed by Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and North Korea.

“Although there were no new wars between countries, tense relationships between the two Koreas, concerns over China’s growing military assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region, the potential further expansion of the Middle East conflicts across borders, and the possibility that conflict between Russia and the Ukraine escalates into all-out military confrontation suggest these may become hotspots for international conflict in the future,” the report added.

China ranked 124^th in the index, 10 notches above the Philippines, while Vietnam placed 56^th.

The IEP defines peace as “more than just the absence of violence,” measuring the state of peace in 162 countries using various indicators.

While saying levels of peace remained stable in the past year, IEP also said global armed conflict had “increased dramatically.”

“Globally, the number of people killed in conflicts [rose] over 3.5 times from 49,000 in 2010 to 180,000 in 2014,” the report said. “The economic impact of violence reached a total of $14.3 trillion or 13.4 percent of global GDP last year.”