60% of Pinoys say 'arrest' of tambays human rights violation

Six out of 10 adult Filipinos agree that "Oplan Tamby" or the rounding up of idlers or "tambay" is a violation of their human rights, pollster Social Weather Stations said Sunday.

Results of the SWS survey, conducted on June 27-30, 2018, revealed that 60 percent of the 1,200 respondents agreed, 26 percent disagreed, while 14 percent were undecided with the statement: "Police arresting idlers or tambays is a violation of their human rights."

This yielded to a net agreement score of +34, classified as "strong" by the SWS.

The results of the same survey showed than 58 percent of the respondents said the police do not choose a class when apprehending loiterers, 40 percent said only poor would be apprehended, while two percent said only the rich would be apprehended.

Meanwhile, 68 percent of the respondents said they worry that they or anyone they know would be rounded up for loitering while 32 percent said they don't.

Ninety-two percent of the respondents, however, said they do not know anyone arrested for loitering, while only nine percent said they do.

The net agreement that police arrests of tambay is a violation of human rights is highest in Mindanao at +48, followed by Visayas at +32, Metro Manila +30, and Balance Luzon +29.

Meanwhile, the opinion that Oplan Tambay targets the poor was stronger in Metro Manila at 63 percent, in urban areas at 47 percent, and among college students, at 46 percent.

Meanwhile, the worry of getting apprehended by police due to loitering was higher in Metro Manila  at 78 percent, in urban areas at 73 percent, and among 18-24 years old at 80 percent.

At the same time, the proportion of those who said they know someone who has been collared due to loitering was highest in Metro Manila at 26 percent, as well as in urban areas at 11 percent.

Those who say that only the poor would be arrested in Oplan Tambay is higher among those who expressed dissatisfaction with the Duterte Administration's performance on "protecting human rights."

Among them, 59 percent say only the poor would be apprehended as compared to 46 percent of those who are undecided about the National Administration and 33 percent of those who are satisfied with the administration.

'Not a crime'

Responding to the results of the survey, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque maintained that President Rodrigo Duterte did not order the arrest of loiterers.

"The matter has already been clarified when the President had said that he did not order the arrest of tambays, for loitering, per se, is not a crime," he said in a statement issued Sunday.

"Authorities then issued guidelines that they would not bring to the police station those without violations," he added.

The survey respondents were 300 adults each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, with a sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages, and ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. —Erwin Colcol/LBG/KG, GMA News