Philippines slips in international passport index
Metro Manila, Philippines - The Philippine passport is less “powerful” this year, according to the latest Henley Passport Index.
Manila’s passport ranked 75th out of 199 documents in 2025, two notches lower than last year, the London-based investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners said on Wednesday, Jan. 8.
Out of 226 destinations, only 67 were visa-free stops for Philippine passport holders.
Among the top 70 most visited countries — except Association of Southeast Asian Nations members which grant the privilege among its citizens — the Philippine passport holder can only visit four nations without need for visa, namely, Brazil, Israel, Mauritius, and Peru.
The Philippines trailed Armenia, Benin, Cape Verde Islands, and Ghana, which were tied at 74th.
On the other hand, the country was a notch higher than Mongolia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone.
But while this was the case, the Philippines is actually open to 160 out of 198 nationalities, which do not need a visa to enter the country. Manila ranked 16th in the Henley Openness Index.
The Singapore passport was the strongest this year with a 195 visa-free score, followed by Japan with 193.
Malaysia was the other ASEAN member that had a high rank at 12th.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan was the weakest as it can only access 26 destinations without having to process papers.
Henley & Partners Chairperson Christian Kaelin, who also invented the passport index concept, urged a “fundamental rethink” on the notion of “citizenship and its birthright lottery” amid rising temperatures and more frequent and severe natural disasters.
“Simultaneously, political instability and armed conflicts in various regions force countless people to flee their homes in search of safety and refuge,” Kaelin said in a news release.
“The need to introduce free global cities to harness the untapped potential of displaced people and other migrants, transforming them from victims of circumstance into architects of their own futures has never been more pressing or apparent,” he added.
Henley & Partners based its data for the passport index from the International Air Transport Authority, as well as cross-checking each passport against all 227 possible travel destinations.
A passport receives a score of one for every visa-free destination, or if it can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor's permit, or an electronic travel authority. If not, it receives a score of zero.
