A Facebook page posted Oct. 1 a misleading infographic relating the rankings of countries in the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2019 to their political and economic systems.
The post by CoRRECT Movement said in an accompanying text:
Sabi ni Heydarian atbp, wala daw sa sistema yan. Nasa taong namumuno lang daw yan. Eh bakit karamihang mga DISIPLINADO at mapayapang bansa ay PARLIAMENTARY at open sa Foreign Direct Investments (Heydarian and others said that it is not the fault of the system, rather, the one seated in power. Yet, why are many disciplined and peaceful countries under a parliamentary system and open to foreign direct investment)?
The post was referring to sentiments of columnist Richard Heydarian and other critics toward the Duterte administration. Heydarian, for example, said in an Aug. 13, 2019 interview President Rodrigo Duterte’s strategy on the Philippines-China relations is failing.
The GPI 2019 report lists only the countries’ rankings, and not their political and economic structures.
CoRRECT Movement’s table classified countries according to to openness to foreign direct investment, structure of territorial administration and form of government. The page did not put any of their sources for this. The Philippines is not included in their list.
While the GPI report does not suggest a connection between a country’s level of peacefulness and its political and economic structures, it notes the possible effect of “positive external relations” on its peacefulness, political stability and foreign direct investment:
Peaceful relations with other countries are as important as good relations between groups within a country. Countries with positive external relations are more peaceful and tend to be more politically stable, have better functioning governments, are regionally integrated and have lower levels of organised internal conflict. This factor is also beneficial for business and supports foreign direct investment, tourism and human capital flows.
CoRRECT Movement also misplaced Switzerland, Czech Republic, Mauritius and Romania on the list. They should be ranked 11th, 10th, 24th and 25th, respectively.
The FB post has 590 reactions and 223 shares as of writing. Crowdtangle data show that CoRRECT Movement has 17.4 million followers. (JGL)
References
Institute for Economics & Peace. (2019). Global Peace Index 2019: Measuring peace in a complex world. Retrieved from http://visionofhumanity.org/app/uploads/2019/06/GPI-2019-web003.pdf