The latest edition of the Atlas of Impunity ranked the Philippines 65th out of 174 countries in terms of commission of crimes without punishment—lagging behind several neighbors in Southeast Asia in an annual report tracking the extent of abuses of power left unchecked.

According to the Atlas of Impunity latest edition released last Wednesday, the Philippines earned an impunity score of 44.86, placing it in the upper half of the global ranking.

A lower score equates to a higher rank, thus a worse assessment on the country’s impunity.

Countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which fared better than the Philippines in the 2025 Atlas of Impunity, along with their corresponding impunity scores, are as follows:

• Indonesia (66th): 44.49
• Vietnam (77th): 42.61
• Thailand (81st): 42.22
• Malaysia (110th): 36.72
• Timor-Leste (126th): 30.90
• Singapore (139th): 26.41

On the other hand, the worst performing ASEAN countries in the impunity ranking are Myanmar (4th), Cambodia (33rd), and Lao PDR (57th).

Brunei Darussalam was an unranked country in the latest assessment.

The study defines impunity as “the exercise of power without accountability, which, in its starkest form, amounts to the commission of crimes without punishment.”

Looking at the Philippines’ performance more closely, the country ranked as follows across five dimensions or study, namely: unaccountable governance (74th), economic exploitation (90th), environmental degradation (90th), conflict and violence (43rd), and abuse of human rights (41st).

The Atlas was spearheaded by David Miliband and the Eurasia Group’s Geostrategy team, with financial support from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. It partnered with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which provided inputs to its global advisory board of experts on governance and human rights.

The study found three important trends in 2025, including how life “looks very different” in countries where impunity is the highest.

“In these states, conflict is often the source of the most serious lapses in accountability, and grave human rights abuses are all too common,” the Atlas read.

Among the five dimensions in the study, unaccountable governance was found to be the “most significant global driver of impunity.”

“Our data show that declining press freedom is the clearest expression of that trend,” it said.

Finally, it reports on the link between respect for accountability and impunity.

“[G]rowing disregard for accountability norms in powerful states, especially the US, is likely to continue to fuel impunity in 2026 and beyond,” it said.

Topping the global impunity list are the following countries, which include an ASEAN neighbor:

• Syria (1st): 68.48
• South Sudan (2nd): 67.14
• Afghanistan (3rd): 66.58
• Myanmar (4th): 66.50
• Yemen (5th): 66.40