Duterte’s signature campaign has killed thousands and caused international alarm amid widespread allegations by activists that police are executing suspected drug users and dealers. Police reject that and say every one of the more than 3,900 victims in their anti-narcotics operations were killed because they were armed and had violently resisted arrest.
Eighty-eight percent of 1,200 people surveyed by pollster Pulse Asia last month said they support the anti-drugs campaign, with 9 percent undecided and 2 percent against it, but 73 percent believed extrajudicial killings were taking place, up from 67 percent in June. A fifth felt there were no such killings, as the authorities maintain, down from 29 percent in June.
The issue of extrajudicial killings is contentious in the Philippines, where definitions of what it means vary from those typically used by international organizations and human rights groups. Pulse Asia in its survey defined the term as “killings done by people in authority, such as the police or soldiers, that do no follow the rule of law.”
Political analysts Ramon Casiple said the survey showed support for the crackdown from those who felt crime was being tackled, but reservations among those most affected. “Communities with reported deaths, generally urban poor communities, are getting increasingly concerned of the killings,” Casiple added.
Nearly nine out of 10 back Duterte’s drugs war: poll - Taipei Times
