officer’s response was a thinly veiled insinuation: “Bakit kayo natatakot kung wala naman kayong tinatago?” • Only a small percentage of women interviewed have filed cases for the EJK. Almost 60 percent of the women interviewed (58.7%) said they are (or were) interested in filing a case in court over what happened to their loved one but only 13 percent did so.The reasons for not pushing through with filing the case included the slow investigation of the police; lack of witnesses or suspects; fears over the safety of family; limited financial resources; and they had to prioritize the addressing practical needs of their household members, especially of the children. The above are not unfamiliar reasons. Resignation to the idea that legal justice is not possible without sustained material assistance is a practical response, given the strong statements of the President reflecting his lack of symathy for those killed in the Drug War, and promise of impunity for police involved in anti-drug operations which led to these deaths. • There are mixed responses as to the women’s support for the War on Drugs in its current form. Generally, the responses include (a) the War on Drugs is good but not the killings, (b) the War on Drugs can include killings but the list should be accurate, and (c) the War on Drugs, with or without the killings, should be fair i.e., target both poor and wealthy addicts. It is not surprising that women directly affected by the War on Drugs, and whose family members were EJK victims at that, would support the violent campaign of the government when their statements are contextualized in the present discourse on illegal drugs. Specifically, the use of illegal drugs have been linked to the increase in crimes in society, and closer to women and children, to forms of gender-based violence such as economic, physical and sexual abuse within and outside of their homes. In this sense, one of the major objectives of the War on Drugs is actually the protection of women and children. Many of the participants personally saw how drug addiction had changed the EJK victim and knew the violence they were capable of doing to them, their children and other people – but they also knew that their family members are capable of changing their ways. The War on Drugs, as initially promoted, opened a window for this to happen. The strong political will behind the campaign prompted families and communities to take it seriously, and facilitated surrenders of drug users to local government units. However, the killings of users and drug surrenderees who sincerely wanted to change is a betrayal, and women’s trust in the campaign was shaken. They would still endorse the killings for hardened criminals and unrepentant drug addicts – it was swift justice welcomed by those who otherwise have no access to or is frustrated with justice dispensed by the courts – but the system needs tuning to be more accurate in its identification of criminals. Class-based Panaghoy: The Philippine War on Drugs from the Perspective of Women March 2019 58