With a population of 80 million, the Philippines is notorious in the international community for a wide range of scams perpetuated by both public officials and private businesses, even entrepreneurs eager to squeeze money out of any loophole, the survey showed.
In the Transparency International survey, the Philippines shared the 11th spot with such countries as Pakistan, Romania and Zambia, only 10 notches away from Bangladesh which was tagged as the most corrupt nation in the world.
Transparency International surveyed business people and risk analysts on their perceptions in the degree of corruption. A score of 10 in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) meant that the nation was perceived as "clean" while a score of zero meant it was seen as highly corrupt.
In the 2002 survey, Finland emerged as the most corruption-free country, scoring 9.7 points on the 10-point scale. In contrast, Bangladesh got a 1.2 score while the Philippines got 2.6.
The Philippines slipped from the CPI score it had in 2001 and its overall ranking slid from No. 65 in 2001 to No. 77 in the 2002 survey.
Transparency International had a total of 15 surveys used by nine independent institutions. To be included in the CPI rankings, at least three surveys had to be administered to locals and expatriates in a country.
Transparency International explained that its definition of corruption involved the abuse of "public office for private gain." The questions asked included the misuse of public power for private benefit with a focus on bribe-taking of government officials.
Transparency International also publishes the Bribe Payers Index which ranked exporting countries according to their propensity to offer bribes.
"It appears that we slid in the ranking. That is the perception in doing business with our agencies. It means we are not addressing enough these corruption incidences," said Judge Dolores Español, Transparency International Philippines president.
Earlier, Procurement Watch Inc. estimated that the Philippines loses P21 billion a year to corruption in the procurement of government goods and services alone.
Procurement Watch program director Kristina Pimentel said about 15 percent of the cost of all government contracts is lost to corruption.
Procurement Watch and Transparency International are both lobbying for the passage of a bill that would improve transparency in government, improve competition and limit discretion in public biddings for government contracts.
Dubbed as the Government Procurement Reform Bill, the proposal was intended to substantially shorten the time spent on procurement with the bidding for goods estimated to be reduced to less than three months from the current seven.