Most powerful passports: Philippines’ in weaker half

MANILA, Philippines — Despite improving its position, the Philippine passport remained in the lower half of the latest annual rankings for world’s most powerful passports.

According to the 2018 Henley Passport Index, the Philippine passport ranked 72^nd in terms of global travel freedom out of the 199 passports in the index.

With visa-free access to only 63 countries, the Philippines tied with Azerbaijan, Cape Verde, Indonesia and Cuba.

The country, moreover, placed sixth alongside Indonesia in Southeast Asia.

Last year, it ranked 67^th with visa-free access to 62 countries.

RELATED: Taiwan grants visa-free entry to Pinoys

German citizens still have the most powerful passport in the world, with visa-free access to 177 countries, up from last year’s 176.

Southeast Asian neighbor Singapore sits at second place globally in the passport index. It is also the highest ranking Asia country in the list.

Singapore passport holders can travel to 176 countries without visa.

Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom shared the third spot as their passport holders can enter 175 countries.

Afghanistan passport holders have visa-free access to only 24 countries, making it the least powerful passport at 104^th place.

The Henley Passport Index is a ranking of all the passports of the world according to the number of countries their holders can travel to visa-free.

The ranking is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association, which maintains the world’s largest and most comprehensive database of travel information.