In Defense of the Right to Life: Analyzing Factors Affecting Filipino Opinion About Death Penalty Of the five symbolic variables, only two were found to be significant predictors of support for the death penalty – following the law over religious principles, and the opinion that the death penalty serves justice. Those who would follow the law over their religious principles were 1.4 times more likely to support the death penalty than those who would follow their religious principles. The opinion that the death penalty serves justice was likewise a strong predictor of support for the death penalty – the likelihood of support for the death penalty was 1.7 times higher among those who agree that death penalty serves justice than those who do not agree. This pattern was observed in the two models where the instrumental variables were entered. Lastly, position on the alternatives to the death penalty was found to be a significant predictor of support for the death penalty. The likelihood of support for the death penalty is lower among those who support for the alternative forms of punishment over the death penalty. B. Preference for Imprisonment Over the Death Penalty for Drug-Related Crimes Figure 2 shows that for six out of the seven specific serious crimes related to illegal drugs that were tested in the survey, majorities of the Filipino public prefer imprisonment terms ranging from 20 years to life imprisonment over the death penalty. Preference for imprisonment, instead of death, was over 70% for those found guilty of working in drug dens (78%), sale of illegal drugs (76%), and maintenance of drug dens (73%). It was followed by murder under the influence of drugs (69%), importation of illegal drugs (68%), and manufacture of illegal drugs (66%). Preference for imprisonment as a punishment for those guilty of rape under the influence of drugs was 53%. On the other hand, only a high of 33% preferred the death penalty for these crimes. The strongest preference for the death penalty was at 47%, for rape under the influence of drugs. For the other six crimes, preference for the death penalty ranged from 22% to 33%. The results of the logistic regression models to determine the factors that predict preference for the death penalty over prison terms are shown in Tables 5-11. Model 1 examined the influence of demographic factors, model 2 examined the influence of TV news access and internet use, model 3 examined the influence of the influence of instrumental factors, model 4 examines the influence of symbolic factors, and model 5 examined the influence of attitudes to alternatives to the death penalty. 15