SWS: 4 of 5 Filipinos fear being EJK victim

President Duterte’s bloody war on drugs is striking fear in the hearts of the people he wants to protect from the evils of illegal narcotics.

Nearly eight of every 10 Filipinos worry they or someone they know might fall victim to extrajudicial killing, a survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS) found, although a majority also gave Mr. Duterte’s campaign against drugs an “excellent” rating.

More than 2,000 people have been killed by police in antinarcotics operations in the country since Mr. Duterte took office on July 1.

Another 3,171 deaths, some attributed to masked men on motorcycles or vigilantes, are under investigation.

Ninety-four percent said it was important that suspects arrested in police operations were kept alive. A total of 41,682 were arrested during police operations from July 1 to Dec. 19.

Worried

The nationwide poll, done on Dec. 3-6, also found that indecision was the common sentiment among 1,500 adult respondents on the police claim that suspected drug dealers and users who were killed had resisted arrest.

The results of the noncommissioned survey, which had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points, were posted online on Monday.

SWS said 78 percent were worried that they or someone they know could be a victim of extrajudicial killing.

Staunch support

Despite those fears, the survey also found that Filipinos were staunchly behind the President’s war on drugs, which has drawn international concern and a request from a UN human rights expert to investigate.

Mr. Duterte’s campaign against drugs received an excellent +77 net satisfaction mark, a rating determined by deducting the 8 percent of respondents who said they were dissatisfied from the 85 percent who were satisfied.

SWS considers a rating of +70 and above excellent; +50 to +69, very good; +30 to +49, good; +10 to +29, moderate; +9 to -9, neutral; -10 to -29, poor; -30 to -49, bad; -50 to -69, very bad; and -70 and below, execrable.

Almost nine in every 10 Filipinos (88 percent) also believed there had been a decrease in the illicit drug problem in their communities.

“I am not surprised with the conundrum that people acknowledge that the antidrug campaign is fitting, so they allow it. But they would like less killings,” said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform.

Martin Andanar, the President’s communications secretary, said the administration recognized concerns among Filipinos but reiterated that the killings were not state-sponsored.

Respect for the law

“Rest assured that the Duterte administration respects the law and upholds the basic rights of our people, regardless of beliefs and political persuasion,” he said in a statement.

Amid fears that they or someone they know could be summarily killed, 70 percent of the respondents believed the administration was serious in solving cases of extrajudicial killings.

A similar figure considered extrajudicial killings a serious problem.

The President, known as “The Punisher,” has said he personally killed criminals while he was mayor of Davao City, leading senators to warn him that he risked being impeached.

Andanar said the unsolved summary executions, which he described as “riding-in-tandem murders,” were not state-sanctioned.

He blamed the media, which “wrongly attributed” killings “perpetrated by common criminals… as part of police operations.”

“Murder is murder. What our authorities are conducting are legitimate police operations that require observance of operational protocols,” Andanar said.

He said policemen who were accused of violating the proper procedures in enforcing the law would be held accountable.

Forty-two percent were undecided whether the police were telling the truth on its claim that suspects were killed because they resisted arrest.

Twenty-nine percent said the police were not telling the truth and 28 percent said otherwise. —INQUIRER RESEARCH AND MARLON RAMOS