SWS: 46% of Filipinos think casualties in ‘drug war’ unavoidable

BLESSING RITES. Fr. Ben Alforque sprinkles holy water on the pictures of people killed in the government’s war on illegal drugs. Their relatives, friends and members of religious and human rights groups offered flowers and lit candles for them during a Mass in Quezon City.  (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JOAN BONDOC)

Nearly half of Filipinos believed that innocent casualties could not be avoided in the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs, a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.

The survey, released on Wednesday, revealed that 46 percent of the 1,500 respondents agreed with the statement: “Hindi maiiwasan na may mamatay na inosenteng mamamayan upang tuluyang masugpo ang illegal na droga sa ating bansa.”

Meanwhile, 35% disagreed with the statement while 19% were undecided.

In the same survey, 42 percent or almost half of the respondents disagreed with the statement: “Tama lang na mapatay ang mga taong gumagamit o sangkot sa bentahan ng illegal na droga.”

Only 39 percent said it was only right for drug users to get killed while 18 percent were undecided.

The survey also showed that 49 percent agreed while 19 percent disagreed with the statement: “In our area, the administration probably has people who secretly observe and report those who are users and those who are sellers of illegal drugs.”

The Third Quarter SWS survey was conducted from September 23 to 27, 2017.  The survey has sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages.        /kga