The recent survey by the Octa Research claiming 86% “satisfaction rating” for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is highly questionable.

Especially in areas of the country where there is heavy presence of AFP combat troops, anti-military sentiments run deep and wide among entire populations which have been placed under martial law conditions and subjected to myriad forms of military abuses.

In rural areas, entire communities and villages have been placed under military garrison, food blockades, subjected to terrorist aerial bombardment, economic disruptions, house-to-house raids, tokhang-style killings, forced evacuation, declaring areas as “no man’s land” and so on. Everyday, AFP troops are involved in human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law.

It is extremely doubtful that the survey firm Octa even conducted interviews among rural populations; and if they ever did, it is doubtful whether they asked the right questions, or whether people could freely express their real opinion.

To conceal their crimes and burnish their image, the AFP is spending hundreds of millions of pesos in people’s money to manipulate media and public perception, often resorting to fake news, misinformation or news blackouts, under its war doctrine of “controlling the information environment.”