Palace: Fewer crime victims proof of effective war on drugs

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang on Friday claimed that the survey results showing fewer victims of common crimes in the last six months is a proof that the Duterte administration’s war on drugs “is working effectively.”

The third quarter survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) on crime, public safety and opinion on the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs, showed that some 1.4 million For 5.6 percent of Filipino families  reported being victims of crimes such as as theft, robbery, break-ins, carnapping and physical violence, among others.

The latest figure is lower than the 7 percent of families who were victimized by crimes in June 2019.

READ: SWS survey: Fewer victims of crime in last 6 months

“We consider this a clear repudiation of the black propaganda and the false narratives peddled by those belonging to the political opposition, the left, the activist members of the clergy, and the vocal critics of the President and the current government, which we expect would consciously refuse to see and deliberately look the other way around and say that this administration’s fight against crimes and drugs remains a failure,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

”The September crime victimization survey,” he said, “validates government data that the campaign against illegal drugs and criminality, a centerpiece program of the administration, is working effectively and efficiently with the results being significant, palpable, and meaningful,” he said.

”It does not therefore take a rocket scientist to understand that the Chief Executive’s performance, satisfaction, approval and trust ratings remain at the stratospheric level at the midpoint of his presidency,” he added.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said that the death toll in the government’s brutal war on drugs has reached 5, 526 while deaths under inquiry is now at around 29,000 as of June 2019.  /gsg