Change is coming: A descriptive study on the social representation of the war on drugs in the Philippines

• Main Authors: Chua, Hezekiah Jazmine E., Ongcal, Alecsandra Denise
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Drug control > Philippines, Drugs of abuse > Philippines; Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/14932
• Institution: De La Salle University

The purpose of this research is to understand the social representations of the drug war to the Filipinos who are indirectly exposed to drug-war related incidence. Four different communities around Metro Manila were chosen for the study, and these include places said to be drug war hot spots and those that are not. Four participants per community were then interviewed, which makes up for a total of 17 participants with 10 females and 7 males. The general findings suggest that with regards to the impact of war on drugs, almost all respondents agreed that this approach to eliminate drugs is not effective at all, for it only begets more violence. The research has identified the following as the social representations of the drug war: (1) the drug is a social problem (2) the drug war is a potential solution to the drug problem. These representations manifest the consensual thought brought about by social negotiation within group members, the traditional binding social structures that earlier guided individual's thinking and behavior, and the ways in which the individuals internalize these things and situate themselves in the social world.