VICE PRESIDENT Sara Duterte dismissed the relevance of a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing a majority of Filipinos believing that former President Rodrigo Duterte should be held accountable for deaths linked to his administration’s anti-drug campaign.
The Third Quarter 2025 SWS survey, commissioned by the Stratbase Group and conducted from Sept. 24 to 30, 2025, showed that 50% of adult Filipinos agree that the former president should be held responsible for drug war killings.
Only 32% disagreed, while 15% were undecided.
VP Duterte, however, maintained that public opinion is irrelevant to the legal proceedings currently facing her father, who is detained at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
“Well, assuming that the data in the survey is truthful and faithful, it is not useful here in our country because the case is not happening here in our country,” the Vice President stated when asked for comment.
She suggested that the survey results are a matter for the international tribunal to consider, not the Philippines itself.
“So, I guess that is for the ICC court to think about if at all they base [anything] on that,” she continued. She concluded by reiterating the survey’s lack of utility in the domestic context of the international case: “Not useful for the Philippines since the trial of President Duterte is not happening here.”
The SWS survey, which sampled 1,500 adult Filipinos nationwide and carried a margin of error, found that support for accountability was highest in the Visayas, Metro Manila, and Balance Luzon, with Mindanao—the Dutertes’ known stronghold—showing the lowest support.
The release of the survey findings coincided with the ICC’s recent decision denying the former President’s request for interim release.
