A global survey on peace and security gave the Philippines an 82 rating for it to land on the top half of 142 countries graded in terms of their citizens’confidence in law and order.

The 2018 Global Law and Order report of US pollster Gallup showed the Philippines was a notch behind New Zealand, two grades below the United States and Taiwan and 15 rungs below leader Singapore.

The Gallup survey measured the people’s sense of personal security and their personal experiences with crime and law enforcement.

To come up with the index results, Gallup compiled positive responses for each country. The higher the score, the higher the proportion of the population that reports feeling safe, Gallup said.

The index score for the world in 2017 was 81 out of a possible 100, thus the Philippines score was higher than average. Eighty-six countries posted scores lower than this average.

Gallup said it sees strong relationships between people’s perception of security “to questions about their own security and their own experiences with crime and law enforcement and external measures related to economic and social development.”

“These relationships illustrate how high crime rates can often suppress social cohesion and negatively affect economic performance,” Gallup added.

Four questions were asked 148,000 respondents in different countries: In the city or area where you live, do you have confidence in the local police force? Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live? Within the last 12 months, have you had money or property stolen from you or another household member? and within the past 12 months, have you been assaulted or mugged?

“I hope the findings of this Gallup Report will boost the morale of our law enforcers and motivate them to even work much harder to secure our streets and neighborhoods, keep the people safe from criminals, and bring those criminals to justice,” Assistant Majority Leader Rep. Bernadette “BH” Herrera Dy said.

“We need much better police visibility, intensive intel ops versus criminal syndicates, training for barangay level security personnel, and close cooperation with residents of neighborhoods,” Dy added.

The survey showed the Philippines in the company of South Korea, Australia, Poland, Croatia, Israel, Romania, Iran, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Bangladesh which received the same score. Lowest on the index are Venezuela (44), Afghanistan (45), South Sudan (54) and Gabon (55).

More than two in every three people worldwide said they have confidence in their local police (69 percent) and feel safe walking alone at night where they live (68 percent), the survey showed.

One in eight (13 percent) said they had property stolen from them or another household member in the past year, and five percent said they were assaulted or mugged.

The countries scoring the best and the worst on the index remained unchanged from 2016 with scores ranging from a high of 97 in Singapore to a low of 44 in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s second consecutive appearance at the bottom of the list reflects a country still in crisis with just 17 percent of residents saying they felt safe walking alone at night where they live and 24 percent expressed confidence in their police.

Both percentages are up somewhat from the record-lows set in Venezuela in 2016 which were the lowest scores Gallup had measured worldwide since 2005, Gallup said.

At the same time, more Venezuelans (42 percent) reported being a victim of theft in the past year — topping the previous high of 38 percent set in 2016.

In only three countries were residents considerably more likely than Venezuelans said they had been the victims of theft in the past year: Afghanistan (46 percent), Uganda (49 percent) and South Sudan (50 percent).

Nearly one in four residents in Venezuela (23 percent) said they had been assaulted — again one of the highest percentages throughout the world that year.

Venezuela shares the “least secure” spot with war-torn Afghanistan. “Afghanistan’s score of 45 in 2017 is essentially on par with Venezuela’s score. While Afghans were more likely than Venezuelans to have been the victims of theft,” Gallup noted.

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