3 in 5 Filipinos say crackdown on 'tambays' illegal

Three in five Filipinos view police arrest of idlers or "tambays" as a violation of human rights, a new Social Weather Stations poll revealed.

Results of the survey released yesterday showed that 60 percent of adult Filipinos agreed (32 percent strongly agree and 28 percent somewhat agree) that the arrests are against human rights.

On the other hand, 26 percent (14 percent somewhat disagree and 11 percent strongly disagree) disagreed. The remaining 14 percent are undecided.

This gives a net agreement score of +34 or strong. SWS terminology for net agreement are: +50 and above, "very strong"; +30 to +49, "strong"; +10 to +29, "moderate"; +9 to -9, "neutral"; -10 to -29, "poor"; -30 to -49, "weak"; and -50 and below, "very weak."

The opinion that the Duterte administration’s "Oplan Tambay" violates human rights is the highest in military-ruled Mindanao, where President Rodrigo Duterte hails, with net agreement at +48. It is followed by the Visayas at +32, Metro Manila at +30 and Balance Luzon at +29.

Mindanao was placed under martial law after ISISinspired terrorists laid siege to the lakeside Marawi City on May 23, 2017.

The second quarter SWS survey was conducted from June 27-30, 2018 using faceto-face interviews of 1,200 Filipino adults nationwide: 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. It has a sampling error margin of ±3 percent for national percentages and ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

The SWS survey also showed that 68 percent (34 percent very worried and 34 percent somewhat worried) of Filipinos are worried they or someone they know might get arrested for loitering.

Of those surveyed, however, 92 percent said they do not know anyone who has been arrested for loitering while 9 percent know someone. Two respondents from Metro Manila (0.1 percent) said they have experienced it themselves.

The worry of getting arrested by police for loitering is higher in Metro Manila (78 percent), urban areas (73 percent) and among18-24-year-olds (80 percent).

The proportion of those who know anyone who has been arrested by the police for loitering is highest in Metro Manila at 26 percent, followed by Mindanao at 9 percent, Balance Luzon at 3 percent and the Visayas at 3 percent.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents say the police do not discriminate by class when arresting "tambays" while 40 percent said only the poor would be arrested and 2 percent said only the rich would be arrested. —