Extra-judicial killings: When surveys lie

too about similar leanings in the Social Weather Stations poll on killings in the anti-drug war.

Rather than putting results out in one report, SWS has multiplied the piecemeal. Readers may fail to relate one another, but SWS is free to do as it wishes with its data for maximum media mileage and public attention.

What it may, however, be admonished for are its dubious survey questions.

Take the poll made public on Monday. Respondents replied if they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with the statements below, or are undecided:

1) Persons who use drugs or are involved in the illegal drug trade do not have the capacity to change anymore.

2) It is right that persons who use drugs or are involved in the illegal drug trade are killed.

3) It is right for policemen to be given cash rewards for every person they kill who are allegedly using illegal drugs or involved in the illegal drug trade.

SWS claims the above statements are “about the campaign of the government against illegal drugs.” Really? If the government truly believes that the capacity to change anymore,” then why did it release most of the 1.3 million surrendered users and pushers?

And why is President Rodrigo Duterte lauding private donors donating billions of pesos for mega-rehabilitation centers to accommodate tens of thousands of reforming addicts?

Turning to statement 2, if it is truly - constitutional for violating the Bill of Rights, since there is no Philippine law allowing the State to deprive anyone of life, following the repeal of the death penalty in 2006.

Yet not even President Duterte’s most vehement critics, nor the Commission on Human Rights, ever sued his administration over such a patently illegal policy.

Moreover, anti-drug operations have recorded about 3,000 times more arrests and surrenders than killings. So, on what basis is SWS saying that statement 2 is about the campaign against narcotics?

The third assertion may be based on allegations by unnamed sources cited in news media and human rights reports. But the government has denied such claims, and there is zero evidence supporting it, beyond anonymous accusations.

SWS is supposedly a respected research organization which puts paramount value on facts. Yet in introducing these false assertions, it says: “Here are some statements about the campaign of the government against illegal drugs.”

Polling ignorance and hype

The results released last Saturday cover questions that seem to play on public ignorance or media conditioning. Respondents indicated their agreement or disagreement with these statements:

4) Rich drug pushers are not killed; only the poor ones are killed.

5) Many of those killed by the police in the anti-drug campaign did not

6) Many of those killed by the police in the anti-drug campaign are not really drug dealers or drug pushers.

For anyone following the news, statement 4 — “only the poor are killed” —is false, since two celebrated drug-war fatalities, Mayors Rolando Espinosa Sr. of Albuera, Leyte, and Reynaldo Parojinog of Ozamiz City, were not poor. Neither was Korean executive Jee Ick-joo.

Hence, the 54 percent of respondents agreeing with the statement don’t know current events.

The next two statements are clearly beyond the competence and knowledge of most people to validate.

Not even SWS president Mahar Mangahas or his expert pollsters can say for certain whether many or few suspects killed in anti-drug police operations had resisted arrest or were drug pushers or users.

Since hardly anyone outside the police and seasoned crime reporters know with authority the validity of statements 5 and 6, SWS results are really more about media conditioning than public awareness and sound opinion.

Indeed, the last statement is, legally speaking, impossible to agree or disagree with, since all suspects by committed any offense. Or one must agree that they were not pushers or users, since they were presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The October 24 results covered overall satisfaction with the antidrug campaign, as well as a question on whether it was important to capture suspects alive.

Many people reading the survey results may think the government cares little whether suspects were captured or killed. In fact, most police probably agree that arresting offenders alive was essential, given the prevalence of Christian morals in the country.

But the real question — which SWS should ask next time — is whether suspects arrested would be taken off the streets and away from crime for good. If most disagree, then that’s why Filipinos cheer the war on drugs, even if thousands of suspects died.