MANILA, Philippines — In an indication of the reach of government’s war on drugs, one out of four Filipinos knows someone who has been summoned for “Oplan Tokhang,” the now suspended door-to-door campaign meant to convince drug users and pushers to surrender.
However, the results of the Third Quarter 2017 Social Weather Survey of polling firm Social Weather Stations indicated serious doubt about whether the campaign was actually netting the right people.
Of those who said they know someone subjected to Tokhang, 49 percent say not all of them are addicts or pushers, of whom 2 percent said none were involved in drugs.
It also found “lower net satisfaction with government among those who say not all of the persons summoned by ‘Oplan Tokhang’ are drug addicts and pushers,” SWS said.
The results are from a non-commissioned poll on the government’s anti-drug campaign conducted from September 23-27 and involved face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults. It had sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages, ±4 percent for Balance Luzon, and ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.
Among earlier released results of this survey:
http://www.interaksyon.com/sws-belief-in-police-claims-of-nanlaban-continues-to-decline/
The results indicated that, statistically, 37 percent of adult Filipinos believe police are lying about slain suspects supposedly having fought back, 45 percent are undecided, and 17 percent say they are telling the truth.
http://www.interaksyon.com/sws-q3-poll-95-say-it-is-important-that-drug-suspects-be-captured-alive/
While 95 percent of respondents said it was important to capture suspects alive, 76 percent said it was “very important” to ensure this.
http://www.interaksyon.com/sws-satisfaction-with-dutertes-war-on-drugs-still-very-good-63/
Notwithstanding growing public opinion against the continued killings, net satisfaction with the government’s war on drugs remained a “very good” +63.
Personal knowledge of someone summoned for Tokhang was highest in Metro Manila at 31 percent, followed by Balance Luzon and Mindanao with 25 percent each, and the Visayas at 22 percent.
Of those who said they knew someone called for Tokhang, 36 percent said all of them were addicts or pushers and 16 percent said they did not know.
Metro Manila also had the highest proportion of respondents saying not all summoned for Tokhang were pushers or addicts, at 50 percent, with 1 percent saying none of them were into drugs, 33 percent saying all of them were involved, and 16 percent saying they did not know.
In the same order of percentages, the results in other geographical areas were:
- Balance Luzon: 49%-1%-33%-16%
- Visayas: 48%-5%-37%-11%
- Mindanao: 41%-3%-43%-13%
SWS said “net satisfaction with the administration’s campaign against illegal drugs (very good +51), President Rodrigo Duterte (good +37), and the overall national administration (good +49) tend to be lower among those who say not all of the persons summoned in ‘Oplan Tokhang’ are drug addicts and pushers, compared to those who say that all of the persons summoned in ‘Oplan Tokhang’ are drug addicts and pushers (excellent +77, excellent +73, and excellent +73, respectively), and those who say they don’t know (very good +62, very good +50, and very good +54, respectively).
The exact questions asked for this survey follow:
- Mayroon ba kayong kilalang tinawag ng mga pulis para sa “Oplan Tokhang”? (MAYROON; WALA) [Do you know anyone who had been summoned by the police for “Oplan Tokhang”? (Knows someone; Does not know anyone)]
- KUNG MAYROON: Ang mga kilala po ba ninyong tinawag ng mga pulis para sa “Oplan Tokhang” ay… (SHOWCARD: Lahat ay drug addict at pusher; Hindi lahat ay drug addict at pusher; Walang drug addict at pusher; Hindi alam kung mayroong drug addict at pusher)? [IF THERE IS: Are the persons you know that were summoned by the police for “Oplan Tokhang”… (SHOWCARD: All are drug addicts and pushers; Not all are drug addicts and pushers; None are drug addicts and pushers; Don’t know if there are drug addicts and pushers)?]