MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday (Dec. 22) contested the results of a recent survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS) that showed 29 percent of Filipinos did not believe police claims that slain drug suspects resisted arrest and fought back, or nanlaban.
Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa, acting PNP chief, said the police had been stereotyped as a result of the nanlaban term.
“The term nanlaban has been a stereotype and it was already embedded in the minds of Filipinos,” Gamboa said at a press briefing. “But we would like to contest that,” he said.
In the “real situation on the field”, there were fewer killings in the drug war compared to its start in 2016, Gamboa said. The PNP, he added, was more focused on operations against high-value targets.
“Perhaps those interviewed only stereotyped the term because it has been their impression,” Gamboa said, referring to respondents in the survey.
“As of yet the real situation today is not so,” he said.
According to the survey conducted from Sept. 27 to 30 and released on Sunday (Dec. 22) by SWS, 26 percent of Filipinos believed police were telling the truth on nanlaban claims, while 47 percent were undecided.
Despite doubts on accounts of police officers on the deaths of drug suspects, the survey also showed that eight out of 10 Filipinos are satisfied with the drug war.
“We go to the favorable satisfaction of Filipinos,” said Gamboa.
Data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as of November showed 5,552 drug suspects had been killed while 220,728 had been arrested in all 151,601 anti-drug operations nationwide since July 2016, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte took oath as chief executive.
READ: PDEA: 5,552 killed in drug war since 2016
Gamboa said respondents in the survey might have not known these figures.
“They don’t have a figure on how many were arrested,” Gamboa said.
“There are around 200,000 already arrested and that is running. The PNP also arrested many drug suspects who were not killed,” he said.