ALMOST half of Filipinos believe it is inevitable that innocent individuals will get killed in the government’s anti-drug war, the latest Social Weather Stations survey revealed Thursday.
In a survey that questioned 1,500 respondents from Sept. 23 to 27, some 46 percent of adult Filipinos agreed that innocent deaths are unavoidable if the drug problem is to be eradicated, broken down into 21 percent who strongly agreed and 24 percent who somewhat agreed.
Some 35 percent of respondents disagreed while 19 percent were undecided.
This gives a net agreement score of “moderately strong” +10, according to SWS.
Malacañang, reacting to the latest poll, agreed that some innocent deaths cannot be avoided.
“Well, in any war, unfortunately, there will be collateral damage. The goal of the government is to minimize the collateral damage.
The goal of the government is to… protect and promote the right to life,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said.
“As far as this obligation is concerned, there is a continuing obligation of the state to investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators of these killings,” he added.
In the same survey, almost five out of 10 respondents, or 49 percent agreed that it is wrong to kill people who use drugs. Only 19 percent disagreed, while 31 percent were undecided.
This resulted in a net agreement score of moderately strong +29.
The September 2017 Social Weather Survey, conducted from Sept. 23 to 27 had sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages.