SWS: More Filipinos think it’s vital to capture drug suspects alive
The Third Quarter 2017 Social Weather Survey fielded from September 23 to 27 found that 95 percent said it is vital that authorities capture drug suspects alive—a five percentage point rise from 90 percent in the second quarter. AP/Bullit Marquez, File
MANILA, Philippines — The recent Social Weather Station survey showed that more Filipinos believe it is important that drug personalities be captured alive by state authorities.
The Third Quarter 2017 Social Weather Survey fielded from September 23 to 27 found that 95 percent said it is vital that authorities capture drug suspects alive—a five percentage point rise from 90 percent in the second quarter.
Seventy-six percent answered “very important” and 19 percent answered “somewhat important” to the question: “How important is it to you that the police capture alive the suspects allegedly involved in illegal drugs?”
Only five percent do not mind if drug suspects are killed in police operations, a six percentage point drop from 11 percent in the second quarter.
The dominant opinion in all areas was that it is important that drug suspects are captured alive. It was 96 percent both in Metro Manila and Balance Luzon and 94 percent both in Visayas and Mindanao.
READ: SWS: Vast majority of Filipinos think drug suspects should be captured alive
The same survey revealed that 77 percent of Filipinos believe that cops consider it important to capture drug suspects alive, with 51 percent saying “very important” and 25 percent saying “somewhat important.”
Twenty-three percent said it is not important for them.
Last October 11, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to take the lead in the administration’s anti-drug campaign amid criticisms of police abuses and accusations of extrajudicial killings.
READ: Duterte: PDEA now 'sole agency' in charge of drug war
Net satisfaction of Duterte, national administration
Duterte’s net satisfaction rating was at very good levels among those who believe that the police consider it “very important” (+54) and “somewhat important” (+50) to capture drug suspects alive.
However, the president’s net satisfaction rating was graded good (+42) among the people who consider it “somewhat not important” to capture drug personalities alive and moderate (+14) among those who believe police officers consider it “not at all important.”
Similarly, the national administration’s net satisfaction rating was a “very good” levels among those who believe that cops consider it “very important” (+64) and “somewhat important (+63) to catch drug suspects alive.
However, it was one grade lower at good among those who believe that policemen consider it “somewhat not important” (+45) and “not at all important” (+30) to capture drug personalities alive.
Duterte’s administration has been criticized for its bloody drug war.
According to the Philippine National Police, there have been 6,225 drug-related deaths between July 2016 and September 2017.
The police said 3,850 have "died in police operations," suggesting these are drug suspects who engaged arresting officers in shootouts; while the another 2,290 "deaths under investigation," have already been determined to be "drug-related."
The latest #RealNumbersPH government data release has raised the number of people killed in drug operations to 3,906.
The third quarter poll was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 Filipino adults nationwide.
It has sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, ±4% for Balance Luzon, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.
Prior to the survey, the entire Caloocan City police force was sacked after the killing of teenagers. Duterte and PNP Chief Ronald dela Rosa also denied any state policy to kill drug suspects in the course of drug war.
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