MANILA — As international prosecutors move forward with cases of crimes against humanity against former President Rodrigo Duterte, a new Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey shows that half of Filipinos now believe he should be held accountable for the bloody consequences of his war on drugs.
The nationwide poll, conducted from Sept. 24 to 30 and commissioned by the Stratbase Group, found that 50 percent of 1,500 adult respondents agreed Duterte must be made responsible for the killings tied to his anti-narcotics campaign.
Another 32 percent disagreed, 15 percent were undecided, and 4 percent said they lacked sufficient information to give an opinion. The survey carried a ±3 percent margin of error.
Support for accountability was strongest in the Visayas (54%), followed by Metro Manila (53%) and the rest of Luzon (52%). Duterte’s home region, Mindanao, registered the lowest support at 39 percent.
The results emerged amid the former president’s continuing detention at the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Scheveningen facility in the Netherlands. Last week, ICC judges denied his legal team’s plea for an interim release on medical grounds.
Prosecutors at The Hague have charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, accusing him of orchestrating at least 76 extrajudicial killings under his administration’s anti-drug operations.
The former chief executive was arrested in Manila on March 11 and swiftly flown to the Netherlands the same night. He has remained under custody since.
His defense counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, maintains that Duterte is “not able to stand trial as a result of cognitive impairment in multiple domains.” Kaufman also urged the court to suspend the proceedings indefinitely until his client’s mental fitness is determined.
The SWS findings, analysts note, reflect a shifting national mood — one that increasingly favors justice and accountability after years of silence over the thousands of deaths that marked Duterte’s signature policy./PN
