76% say many human rights abuses in war vs drugs: SWS

January 13, 2020

Seventy six percent said there have been many human rights abuses in the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs, according to latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey.

In its latest report released on Sunday, SWS said  24 percent replied there have been few.

With the United Nations Human Rights Council setting up an investigation into thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings committed during Duterte’s campaign, SWS found 56 percent of Filipinos agreed with the move while 20 percent disagreed.

Based on government data, from July 1, 2016 to November 30, 2019, a total of 5,552 alleged drug personalities died during anti-illegal drug operations.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said with Philippine National Police (PNP) and other law enforcement agencies, they  conducted 151, 601 operations since the start of Duterte administration where 220, 728 were arrested.

The SWS survey from December to 16, 2019 includes the removal of Vice President Leni Robredo as co-chairperson of Interagency Committee on Anti-illegal Drugs (ICAD) where 56 percent were aware of Robredo’s removal in the committee while 43 percent said they learned about it during the survey.

Of the 1, 200 adult they interviewed, forty-four percent of Filipinos said President Rodrigo Duterte was sincere in appointing her but 27 percent said otherwise.

During her briefing, Robredo said her 18-day stint as co-chair of ICAD was enough to find out the “war on drugs” is failing but according to 73 percent, the number of illegal drug suspects in the country has fallen since the start of Duterte’s presidency.

However, 49 percent agreed that her removal after 18 days in the agency was government’s admission that its “war on drugs” is failing while 21 percent disagreed and 30 percent were undecided.

SWS also found that 60 percent agreed that Robredo had the right to see the high value target list while 15 percent disagree and 24 percent were undecided.

It was Duterte who denied Robredo access to the HVT list saying she cannot be trusted.

After her public report on her assessment on the illegal drugs campaign, the PNP and PDEA debunked her claims, adding Robredo did not understand their data and is only attacking the president.  Ella Dionisio/DMS