Fewer Filipinos satisfied with Duterte’s war on drugs

Fewer Filipinos are satisfied with President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, a recent survey by the Social Weather Station showed.

However, there are also fewer Filipinos who are worried that they or people they know will become victims of extrajudicial killings.

Conducted March 25 to 28 using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents, the SWS survey shows that net satisfaction with the anti-drug campaign is now at a “very good” +66, 11 points and a grade lower than the “excellent” +77 it received in December last year.

Of this number, 78 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the Duterte administration anti-drug war, seven points lower from December.

Meanwhile, 12 percent are dissatisfied, four points higher than the previous quarter.

It also showed that the “extent of worry” among adult Filipinos that they, or anyone they know, will be a victim of summary executions, has gone down slightly, from 78 percent in December 2016 to 73 percent in March.

Here, 37 percent said they are “very worried,” eight percent lower than the previous quarter. However, the number of those who are “somewhat worried” slightly went up to 36 percent, from 33 percent in December.

Some 14 percent said they are “not too worried,” while 13 percent they are “not worried at all.”

Despite the dip in net satisfaction on the drug war, the March 2017 survey showed that 70 percent of respondents still think the administration is “serious” about solving EJKs in the country.

Those who think the government is “very serious” on this has gone up four points to 38 percent, while 32 percent the administration is “somewhat serious.”

Majority of the respondents still think it is important that drug suspects be captured alive.

Sixty-six percent said this is “very important, while 26 percent said it is “somewhat important,” lower by five and three points from last quarter, respectively.

On the other hand, five percent said it was “somewhat not important,” while three percent said it was “not at all important.”

The respondents, meanwhile, are still unsure over the police’s claim that some drug suspects are killed because they resist arrest, with the number of undecided up by two points to 44 percent.

Some six percent say the police are “definitely telling the truth” with this claim, while 18 percent say they are “probably telling the truth.”

Another 17 percent say they are “probably not telling the truth,” while 14 percent said they are “definitely not telling the truth.”

The March 2017 survey has sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages, and ±6 percent for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, where SWS took 300 respondents each.

The said poll is non-commissioned. —NB/JST, GMA News