SWS: Satisfaction in drug war ‘very good’ but drops in NCR

A NEW survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released on Tuesday, Oct. 17, showed net satisfaction with the Duterte government’s campaign against illegal drugs at +63 points — two points lower than a previous survey, “owing to decreased support in Metro Manila and Balance Luzon, offset by increased support in Mindanao and in the Visayas.”

The noncommissioned survey was conducted on Sept. 23-27 via face-to-face interviews with 1,500 respondents — 600 in Balance Luzon and 300 each in Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao, with sampling error margins of ±3 for national percentages, ±4% for Balance Luzon, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.

In this latest survey, 77% of respondents said they were satisfied with the anti-drug campaign, as opposed to 14% who were dissatisfied, yielding the net +63 that compares with +65 in an SWS survey last June and still ranks as “very good.”

(The survey’s terminology for net satisfaction is as follows: +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”, -70 and below, “execrable.”)

Net satisfaction in the drug war was +76 (excellent) in September last year. It rose one point in December, before sliding down to +66 (very good) in March 2017 and +65 last June.

Metro Manila had a marked 16-point drop in net satisfaction at +61 (77% satisfied, 16% dissatisfied) from +77 in June, followed by the 7-point drop in Balance Luzon to +54 (72% satisfied, 17% dissatisfied), from last June’s +61.

It was in Mr. Duterte’s home region of Mindanao (currently under martial law since May because of the fighting in Marawi) where net satisfaction had a considerable rise of 10 points to +77 (85% satisfied, 7% dissatisfied), from +66 last June.

Visayas saw a 4-point rise in net satisfaction from +64 last June to +68 (80% satisfied, 12% dissatisfied) in September.

SWS also noted: “Net satisfaction with the performance of President Duterte was higher among those satisfied with the campaign against illegal drugs, at a very good +63 (75% satisfied, 13% dissatisfied, correctly rounded), compared to the moderate +23 (48% satisfied, 26% dissatisfied, correctly rounded) among those undecided about the anti-illegal drug campaign, and the poor -20 (31% satisfied, 50% dissatisfied, correctly rounded) among those dissatisfied with the campaign against illegal drugs.”

“The September 2017 survey also found that 71% of Filipino adults say that there are less drug addicts in their area compared to 6 months ago, while 9% say there are more, and 12% said the number was the same,” the polling group also reported. — Rosemarie A. Zamora