More Filipinos found the “nanlaban” claims of police hard to believe.

This was the result of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, which revealed a declining trend in the public’s opinion on the honesty of the Philippine National Police (PNP) when its members declared that drug suspects were killed because they resisted arrest or attacked authorities during their arrest.

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The SWS survey released on Monday showed that 37 percent believed the policemen were lying about their ‘nanlaban’ statements, up by 9 percentage points from 28 percent in June.

Only 17 percent of the respondents believed that policemen were telling the truth that drug suspects fought back, down by 8 percentage points from 25 percent in the June survey.

Meanwhile, 45 percent of Filipinos were still undecided on the issue.

“This brings the net opinion about the truthfulness of the police to a significant -20”, SWS said.

The survey covered 1,500 adult-respondents from September 23 to 27, and asked this question:

“Sa kampanya ng gobyerno laban sa illegal na droga, ang kapulisan po ba ay: Talagang nagsasabi ng totoo; Malamang nagsasabi ng totoo; Hindi tiyak kung nagsasabi ng totoo o hindi; Malamang hindi nagsasabi ng totoo; Talagang hindi nagsasabi ng totoo na ang napapatay nilang suspect ay talagang nanlaban sa kanila?”

(In the government’s campaign against illegal drug, the police are: Definitely telling the truth; Probably telling the truth; Undecided if telling the truth or not; Probably not telling the truth; Definitely not telling the truth that the suspects they killed really resisted them?”)

The SWS survey also noted that the net opinion about the PNP’s truthfulness was lowest in Metro Manila at -34, followed by Balance Luzon at -31, Visayas at -15, and Mindanao at +3.

Despite this, the latest SWS survey still showed that majority of the respondents said they were satisfied with the performance of President Rodrigo Duterte and the government.

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Among the respondents who said that policemen were “definitely not telling the truth,” 52 percent said they were satisfied with Duterte’s performance, 37 percent were dissatisfied, and 11 percent were undecided.

When it comes to the administration’s performance, 56 percent of the respondents, who believed that policemen definitely lied on their ‘nanlaban’ tales, said they were satisfied with the government while 25 percent were dissatisfied.

The survey had a sampling error margin of ±3 percent for national percentages, ±4 percent for Balance Luzon, and ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao, SWS said. /kga

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