(UPDATE 2 – 8:10 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines — General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa is not happy with the succeeding reports about the negative surveys on the administration’s war on drugs. And the national police chief is thinking that the bit by bit release of the survey results is being deliberately done as part of a “piecemeal attack” against President Rodrigo Duterte’s pet campaign.
“Very obvious, that’s piecemeal attack dahil nilabas na nila ‘yan. Para bang naubusan na tayo ng bala,” Dela Rosa told media on Tuesday, Oct. 24, saying it appeared that the pollster had run out of bullets against the administration as it already resorted to releasing little by little the results of the same survey it conducted.
“‘Di ko kinukwestyon ano ginagawa sa survey. Bakit dahan-dahan ilabas? Ayaw pagpahingahin. Umalis na nga kami sa war on drugs eh,” he added.
[I’m not questioning what is being done in the survey. Why is it that the results are being released gradually? They don’t want to put the issue to rest. We’re no longer in-charge of the war on drugs.]
SWS surveys and Duterte’s move to transfer war on drugs campaign to PDEA
Last October 10, following the Sept. 29 and Oct. 5 releases of the results of the Social Weather Stations’ June 23-26, 2017 survey about the police’s war on drugs and the Oct. 8 release about the SWS Sept. 23-27, 2017 poll about the President’s net satisfaction rating, Duterte issued an order designating the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as the “sole agency” in charge of the anti-narcotics campaign.
The Sept. 29 release of the SWS survey results showed that 63 percent of Filipinos believe that there are suspects in the illegal drug trade who already surrendered and yet still killed.
The October 5 release of survey results showed that 90 percent of Filipinos say that it is important that drug suspects be captured alive and 73 percent worry about becoming victims of extrajudicial killings.
The Oct. 8 release noted that the chief executive’s net satisfaction rating fell 18 points to “good” at +48 and his net trust rating declined 15 points to “very good” at +60.
Pinoys’ belief in police’s ‘nanlaban’ claim continues to decline
In another release dated Oct. 18, the SWS reported that based on its Sept. 23-27, 2017 survey, the net satisfaction with the administration’s campaign against illegal drugs fell 2 points to +65 from +67 in June 2017.
Last Oct. 23, the SWS released another result of its Sept. 23-27, 2017 poll showing that Filipinos’ belief in the police’s claim that suspected drug users and traders were killed because they fought with authorities or “nanlaban” continues to decline.
It was noted in the said SWS survey that the net opinion about the truthfulness of the police’s nanlaban claim was at -20 or a difference between 37 percent who say the police are not telling the truth and 17 percent who say the police are telling the truth.
In the SWS June 2017 survey, 25 percent believed the police and 28 percent did not believe the police, resulting in the net balance of opinion of -3.
On Tuesday, Oct. 24, SWS survey data archives, library and communications group director Leo Rando Laroza denied that the survey firm had been engaging in the so-called piecemeal attack.
SWS: Follow-up reports are not piecemeal attacks, these contain more details, value-added info
The full results of the Sept. 2017 survey were in fact released to the public last October 11 through a presentation by SWS deputy director for survey design, analysis, and training Vladymir Joseph Licudine, according to Laroza.
He said the SWS releases on the “follow-up reports” were part of the full survey results presented on Oct. 11. but with “more details” and “value-added” information.
“Dito po sa paunti-unti naming nilalabas, may mga value-added dahil sinasagot namin paunti-unti ‘yong mga katanungan na nakukuha namin noon. Kagaya ngayon, dito sa latest report namin, sinusubukan naming ipakita ‘yong…epekto na mayroon sa public perception naman ng performance ng ating Pangulo kapag tiningnan mo ang opinyon ng mga tao na nagsasabi na sila ay naniniwala sa pulis o hindi naniniwala sa pulis,” said Laroza during an interview with dzMM radio.
[There is already value-added information in the survey results that we gradually release because we answer bit by bit the questions that we gathered before. Like now, in our latest report, we try to show the effects of public perception to the performance of our President if you look at the opinion of the people who say that they believe the police or they don’t believe the police.]
“So meron na pong mga value-added itong mga sumusunod na reports namin. Hindi naman po ito dahil inuulit-ulit lang namin ang findings [So our succeeding reports already have value-added information. These are not a repeat of our earlier findings],” he added.
