While most Filipinos support President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, six out of 10 of them agree that a campaign to round up idlers and loiterers is a violation of their human rights, a survey by the Social Weather Stations shows.
The survey, conducted on June 27 to 30, showed that 60 percent of 1,200 respondents agreed with the statement “Police arresting idlers or tambays is a violation of their human rights.” Twenty-six percent disagreed and 14 percent were undecided.
The same survey showed that 58 percent believed police do not choose a class when they round up loiterers, while 40 percent said only the poor would be apprehended.
A majority or 68 percent said they worry that they or someone they knew would be rounded up for loitering, while 32 percent said they don’t worry about that.
An overwhelming 92 percent of the respondents said they did not know anyone arrested for loitering.
The survey used face-to-face interviews with 300 adults each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, with a sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages, and ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.