Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 8) — The Philippines hit rock bottom once again in an international business magazine’s list of safest countries worldwide this year.
The country placed last in Global Finance’s World Safest Countries 2021 published on Tuesday.
This year’s list — which featured 134 countries — took into account as factors war and peace, personal security, and natural disaster risk including the “unique risk factors stemming from COVID-19.”
The Philippines garnered a score of 14.8899 in the Global Finance Safety Index to land at the bottom. The higher a country’s ranking is, the smaller the score is. Iceland scored 3.9724 in the index to bag the top spot.
The global publication described the Philippines as having “serious civil conflict that have high risks from natural disaster.”
It said the country reported a relatively low death toll due to the pandemic but “performed poorly in terms of safety overall.”
Coronavirus deaths in the Philippines have recently breached 25,000.
Global Finance applied the same description for Nigeria, Yemen, and El Salvador. These countries ranked 131st, 126th, and 124th respectively, landing at the bottom half of the list along with the Philippines.
However, this is not the first time Manila finished last in Global Finance’s list.
The list’s 2019 iteration, which evaluated 128 nations, also placed the country at the bottom, with the Philippines and Yemen occupying the two lowest rankings.
Global Finance said this was because Yemen has a very low risk of natural disaster despite war and famine, while the Philippines had poor scores in peace, security, and prevalence of calamities.
