96% of Pinoys says it's important to capture drug suspects alive - SWS

Nearly all Filipinos believed that it was necessary that drug suspects be captured alive, a second quarter-2018 Social Weather Station (SWS) poll found.

According to the poll, 96 percent of Filipinos (75 percent, very important; 21 percent, somewhat important) said police should catch drug suspects alive while four percent (three percent, somewhat not important; one percent, not at all important) believed that it was not important if they were captured alive or not.

The survey also found that 26 percent of Filipinos believed that police were not telling the truth when they claimed they had only killed drug suspects who resisted arrest during anti-illegal drugs operations, while 27 percent believed that the police were telling the truth.

The remaining 47 percent were undecided.

This brought the net opinion about the truthfulness of the police during the second quarter to a net score of zero.

Net opinion on authorities' truthfulness regarding claims drug suspects resisted arrest was lowest in Metro Manila at -25 (17 percent, definitely telling the truth; 42 percent, definitely not telling the truth).

It was -6 in Balance Luzon at (20 percent, definitely telling the truth; 25 percent, definitely not telling the truth), -4 the Visayas (27 percent, definitely telling the truth; 31 percent, definitely not telling the truth), and +31 Mindanao (45 percent, definitely telling the truth; 14 percent, definitely not telling the truth).

Satisfaction

The second quarter survey also round that the net satisfaction with the performance of President Rodrigo Duterte was an excellent +77 among those who believed that cops were definitely telling the truth about drug suspects who supposedly evaded arrest.

It was very good +66 for those who believed the police were probably telling the truth, a good +46 among those who were undecided, good +36 among those who believed they were probably not telling the truth, and neutral +3 for those who believed they were definitely not telling the truth.

The poll also found that net satisfaction with the government' performance in its anti-illegal drugs campaign was an excellent +77, both among those who believed the police were definitely telling the truth about suspects who resisted arrest and among those who believed the police were probably telling the truth.

Meanwhile, 86 percent (58 percent, very important; 28 percent, somewhat important) believed that police were still considering the importance of capturing drug suspects alive.

Fourteen percent, on the other hand, said it was not important to the police force.

Another SWS survey had found that nearly 8 out of 10 Filipinos said they were satisfied with the Duterte administration's war against illegal drugs.

The second quarter poll on police claims on suspect killings was taken from June 27 to 30 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults: 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. There was a sampling error margin of ±3 percent for national percentages, and ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. — Anna Felicia Bajo/DVM, GMA News