Fake news: 51 percent think Duterte ‘accountable’ for drug war killings

FOR the third time in two years, the Social Weather Station poll survey outfit has allowed itself to be used in creating and spreading a false portrayal of Filipinos’ opinion regarding the Dutertes.

I am referring to its Feb. 15-19 survey that was reported by most media, that “51 percent of Filipinos say Duterte accountable for drug war deaths.” This is blatantly fake news.

In the first place, this claim is based on a survey in which only 900 persons of those asked allegedly thought so, and for such an important issue, the article’s headline should have mentioned that it was a poll.

More importantly, the SWS poll question is so seriously flawed. Any professional pollster would right away see that the SWS question is biased, and emotionally charged to result in the desired answer, which the pro-Marcos, pro-US propaganda firm Stratbase Consultancy that paid for it wanted: support for the Marcos administration’s hijacking of the former president to the International Criminal Court. For its 40 years as a pollster, SWS should know this. I wonder why they pretended not to know this.

The SWS question: “Gaano po kayo sumasang-ayon o hindi sumasang-ayon na dapat panagutin si dating Pang. Rodrigo Duterte sa mga patayang may kaugnayan laban sa illegal na droga noong panahon ng kanyang administrasyon?” (How much do you agree or disagree that former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte should be held accountable for the killings related to illegal drugs during his administration?)

In Filipino, patayan is a very emotionally charged word that suggests a very deliberate massacre people should be aghast over.

It is a rule in professional polls for the pollster to reasonably inform the respondent the context and even background of the question so that he knows what he is being asked to respond to.

Pew Research

For instance, a poll by the respected pollster Pew Research in 2019 to determine what Americans want their government to do to stop illegal immigration asked the following:

“In recent years, the US has faced an increase in migrants seeking asylum at the southern border, with many coming from Central American countries like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, often fleeing violence and poverty. Some policymakers propose building a border wall to deter illegal crossings, while others advocate for more humanitarian approaches, such as increasing aid to these countries or expanding legal pathways for asylum seekers. Which of the following best reflects your view on how the US should address this situation?

a) build a border wall to deter illegal crossings; b) increase aid to Central American countries to address root causes; c) expand legal pathways for asylum seekers ;) a combination of these approaches; e) none of these approaches; f) don’t know.”

Note that the poll gave respondents the leeway to support the other alternatives. Even with these, the majority of Americans, 58 percent, opposed substantially expanding the wall along the US-Mexico border, while 40 percent supported it.

If the SWS’ flawed polling framework were instead used, the question would be just a simplistic one: “Do you favor building a wall in order to deter illegal migrants or not?” With that leading question, and no alternatives in handling the flood of immigrants, the poll would have instead claimed that majority of Americans favor building a wall.

If Pew handled the poll on Duterte, it would have as a responsible pollster asked:

“From 2016 to 2019, the Duterte administration undertook an intensified campaign to rid the country of the scourge of illegal drugs, which got a least about 1.8 million Filipinos, as the Dangerous Drugs Board Board estimated for 2015, addicted to these. These resulted in the rise of criminality, especially violent crimes such as rape and murder. The political opposition, including communist-led organizations claim that 30,000 were killed, although they haven’t provided evidence for this. US and Western media all condemned Duterte for alleged “extrajudicial killings in these intensified campaign against illegal drugs. The police, even under the term of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. who has made Duterte his political enemy, claims that only 6,252 suspected drug pushers were killed in firefights with the police.

Do you think Duterte should be charged with murder for these killings??

Specific

Note that such a poll question is specific in asking if Duterte should be charged for murder (as the International Criminal Court has) instead of the SWS’ use of the vague word “accountable” (may kaugnayan). It also specified what the “patayan” referred to and how many were killed.

I’m quite sure with such an explanation on what the respondents were being asked to respond to, the huge majority of Filipinos – even 90 percent – will be found to be supportive of Duterte, and totally reject the idea of his being charged of murder.

The flawed poll was commissioned by Stratbase Consultancy, which the SWS undertook the poll from Feb. 15-19 and released the misleading results March 19, 2025, just a week after the Marcos regime illegally surrendered Duterte to the ICC authorities. It was obviously meant as the PR component of the plot to portray Duterte’s kidnapping as supported by most Filipinos.

SWS has become a tool for the anti-Duterte conspiracy. In January it undertook a poll, also commissioned by Stratbase Consultancy, that claimed that 41 percent of Filipinos backed the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.

SWS also manipulated the result by not including in their computation those who said they weren’t aware of the impeachment. The real results of the poll was that only 19 percent agreed to the impeachment while 16 percent disagreed, which with the margin of error would mean that the results could be the reverse, i.e. 19 percent opposing the impeachment and 16 percent supporting it.

The SWS has been undertaking the same tactic — asking respondents to reply to issues they have not been given sufficient information on and using leading questions — to portray that Filipinos support a belligerent stance against China and think that country is an aggressor.

What a debasement of opinion polls, a modern tool of democracy. Have you no shame?

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Fake news: 51 percent think Duterte ‘accountable’ for drug war killings
Source: Breaking News PH