Patricia Evangelista tells her story as a reporter in the Philippines during President Rodrigo Duterte’s term in office from 2016 to 2022. She worked as a “trauma” reporter for a small, independent news agency that documented the Extra Judicial Killings (EJK) ordered and sanctioned by Duterte, which took the lives of between 10,000 and 30,000 people. “Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country” was an interesting read although it could have been shorter and I wanted more context and analysis instead of documenting murder after murder. It must have been tough to every evening go out and see the aftermath of executions. Often victims were hog-tied and had signs attached to them, like “drug abuser”, etc. Vigilante groups, police and probably general poor thugs, paid by the government were asked to execute lists of individuals.
I wanted to know how big the drug problem was to make it OK for people to vote for someone pledging to kill drug users, dealers, and producers. What kind of society would vote for someone who says they will kill so many people? Was the problem so serious that the only solution was extermination? How many innocent people died along with the actual drug dealers, producers, and abusers that cause harm to others? Was murdering them the only way to solve the problem? She devotes a chapter or two to the history of the Philippines and the awful dictators/presidents who led up to Duterte’s election. I wanted to know more about how the government and police defined who should be killed. Were neighbors using it as revenge? How many mistakes were made?
Things I learned
- Spanish conquistador Ruy Lopez de Villalobos named the islands in 1544 after the future king, Philip the Second of Spain.
- “Philippines problems include a high birthrate, land shortage, absentee owners, prostitution and gambling rackets, corrupt police and military.
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