Global firepower: Phl military ranks 37th

MANILA, Philippines - Is the Philippines strong enough to defend its territory?

The Philippines ranked 37th out of 106 countries in terms of military strength, according to a report that gathered data on the capabilities of armed forces worldwide.

The Philippine military, widely regarded as one of the weakest in the region, ranked fourth among the Southeast Asian countries covered by the Global Firepower 2014 Power Index.

The countries’ rankings were based on scores that are judged on a perfect value of 0.0000. The scores were obtained using more than 50 factors that fall within the categories manpower, land systems, air power, naval power, resources, logistics, finance, geography and powers by region.

The Philippines, which has been upgrading the capabilities of its armed forces to secure its territorial integrity, got a score of 1.3042.

China, which has been beefing up its military capabilities while asserting its territorial claims in the South China Sea, got the third highest score with 0.2594.

The United States emerged as the strongest military power in the index with 0.2208 followed by Russia with 0.2355.

India landed in fourth place with 0.3872, while its former colonizer United Kingdom ranked fifth in the index with.0.3923

The Philippines’ ranking is lower than that of Indonesia (19th) with 0.8008, Vietnam (23rd) with 0.8962, and Thailand (24th) with 0.9287. But it is better than that of Malaysia (38th) with 1.3143, Singapore (44th) with 1.4699, Cambodia (84th) with 2.5798, and Laos (102nd) with 3.7683.

Countries that are close to the Philippines’ ranking are Mexico (33rd) with 1.1843, Belgium (34th) with 1.2754, North Korea (35th) with 1.2893, Austria (36th) with 1.2974, Norway (39th) with 1.3137, Ethiopia (40th) with 1.3229 and South Africa (41st) with 1.3467.

Countries that are at the bottom of the list are Lithuania (103rd) with 3.8281, Mozambique (104th) with 4.1026, Madagascar (105th) with 4.2547 and Tanzania (106th) with 4.3423.