A labor NGO welcomed today an international human rights index’s ranking of the country as among the worst performers as regards quality of life, safety from the state, and people empowerment, and said that the ranking is another wake-up call for the government.

The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) said that the findings of the New Zealand-based Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) 2026 should push the government to carry out pro-people economic reforms, stop repression of dissent, and uphold Filipinos’ civil liberties and political rights.

“As a workers’ rights NGO in the Philippines, we welcome the HRMI 2026’s ranking of the country as among the worst performers globally and in Southeast Asia. Such a ranking is not new, but the government refuses to take concrete action to improve the state of Filipinos’ human rights,” said Kamz Deligente, CTUHR executive director.

For quality of life, HRMI gave the following scores to the Philippines based on what is possible given the country’s level of income: right to education, 66.1%; right to food, 65.9%; right to health = 76.5%; right to housing, 84.5%; and right to work, 81.3%.

“Many Filipinos will find the relatively high scores for the right to housing and the right to work questionable. More importantly, what these scores show is that the country’s income is not equitably shared. Big businesses siphon off huge profits and big politicians pocket the people’s money, while Filipinos’ economic rights are disregarded,” Deligente stated.

As regards safety from the state, HRMI gave the Philippines a perfect score of 10 on death penalty, even as it also gave the country the following scores: right to freedom from arbitrary arrest, 3.1; right to freedom from forced disappearance, 5.3; right to freedom from extrajudicial execution, 4.6; right to freedom from torture and ill-treatment, 4.0.

“CTUHR, Karapatan and other human rights organizations in the Philippines have consistently monitored and reported on Filipinos’ lack of safety from the state. Workers have to think twice, even thrice, before forming or joining unions, or organizing fellow workers because of various kinds of state repression,” Deligente stated.

CTUHR said that according to its monitoring, there have been 106 reported and unsolved cases of extrajudicial killings in the labor sector since 2016; there are currently 20 political prisoners from the labor movement; and there are two (2) cases of enforced disappearance of labor activists under the Ferdinand Marcos Jr regime.

Regarding people empowerment, HRMI gave the following scores to the Philippines: right to assembly and association, 4.3; right to opinion and expression, 5.4; right to participate in government, 7.0; and right to freedom of religion and belief, 7.9.

“Many Filipinos will find the relatively high score in the right to participate in government questionable, as the government has virtually confined Filipinos’ political participation to voting during elections and commenting on social media. It is noticeable that the country received the lowest scores in rights that are exercised by labor and social movements, and therefore by ordinary workers and Filipinos,” Deligente stated.