SWS: 54% agree only poor drug pushers are killed

By Rosemarie A. Zamora

ABOUT HALF of Filipinos (54%) agree that only poor drug pushers are killed in the government’s drug war, the latest snapshot by the Third Quarter Social Weather Survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

The noncommissioned survey was conducted Sept. 23-27 and this latest finding was published on the SWS Web site on Saturday, Oct. 28. It also presented an update on previous questions asked respondents, and showed 50% agreeing many of those killed in the anti-drug campaign did not fight back, and 45% agreeing that many of those killed in the anti-drug campaign are not really drug dealers.

An earlier snapshot of the September survey published last Friday polled 49% of respondents who know someone summoned by police for the anti-drug campaign said none or not all of those summoned are drug pushers/addicts.

The September survey, also like an earlier survey conducted by the SWS in June, showed a considerable percentage of respondents undecided on test statements about the anti-drug campaign, but the figures on undecided respondents were smaller in the National Capital Region.

The 54% (31% strongly agree, 23% somewhat agree) in the test statement, “Rich drug pushers are not killed; only the poor ones are killed,” is a drop from 60% who said likewise in June. The latest figure yields a net agreement score of +29, classified by SWS as moderately strong.

(The SWS terminology for net agreement is as follows: +50 and above, Extremely Strong; +30 to +49, very strong; +10 to +29, moderately strong; +9 to -9, neutral; -10 to -29, moderately weak; -30 to -49, very weak; -50 and below, extremely weak.)

Among regions, 69% (41% strongly agree, 28% somewhat agree) of respondents in Metro Manila agreed that only the poor are getting killed in the anti-drug campaign, 21% disagreed, and 9% were undecided — thus yielding the highest score of very strong +49, although this was a huge drop from +61 last June.

The same survey also showed 50% (22% strongly agree, 29% somewhat agree correctly rounded) agreeing with the test statement, “Many of those killed by the police in the anti-drug campaign did not really fight against the police,” whereas 23% disagreed (13% somewhat disagree, 10% strongly disagree) and a considerable 26% were undecided.

On the test statement, “Many of those killed by the police in the anti-drug campaign are not really drug dealers or drug pushers,” the survey showed 45% (18% strongly agree, 27% somewhat agree) agreeing that many of those killed by police are not really drug pushers (18% strongly agree, 27% somewhat agree), while 28% disagreed (16% somewhat disagree, 13% strongly disagree, correctly rounded), and 26% were undecided.

The September survey had face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide, 600 in Balance Luzon and 300 each in Metro Manila, the 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).