Push Admin

How Patricia Evangelista came to write 'Some People Need Killing'

Article (news)

Josiah Antonio, ABS-CBN News

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2885116" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>MANILA — With her book &quot;Some People Need Killing,&quot; Filipino journalist Patricia Evangelista hopes that readers would look at the drug war victims beyond the spot reports.&quot;There was a lot of investigation, there&#x27;s a lot of autopsy reports, there were many interviews but everyone of those was an element that would create the necessary scene. And there were also more than 4 million words of President Duterte speeches, by no means a complete text of everything he said, but in my case it was 19,000 pages of his rhetoric,&quot; Evangelista told ANC in an interview on Monday.&quot;Every fact, every detail was put together in order to take you through what other people did. I didn&#x27;t lose anyone during the war, I stood over the body but it was everyone else who suffered. What I wanted to do was to try to at least see people as beyond names on a spot report. That&#x27;s also why it took so long,&quot; she added. In the book, Evangelista recounted her day-to-day coverage of the drug war under then President Rodrigo Duterte.<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Patricia" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/news/11/27/20231127-patricia.jpg"/></figure></div>&quot;My style of writing is to take the story with me. The way I do it is when I walk into a crime scene, I try to get every detail. My general rule for myself is that if I can go home and then if I can see the entire story in my head in 360 degrees ...that means I did the job. So I get to take the story home with me,&quot; the author said.&quot;Across the six years of the war, when I was covering for Rappler, of when I was writing the book, my personal process was to build the scenes in my head. I need to see it in order to show you. If I cannot imagine it then, there is no way that I can make the reader imagine,&quot; she added. Evangelista recalled that some stories during the drug war that she followed were never published. They are now in the book after realizing how vital their narratives are to the story.&quot;There are portions of stories that came out already in Rappler, meaning that there were previous investigations that I broke apart and look at again through another. And there were other stories that I covered during the drug war, during my stay at Rappler but never published because I&#x27;m quite not sure why... When I was writing the book, I realized it was because it seemed to speak to the bigger question of the war,&quot; the Filipino journalist said.&quot;In that, while I was doing field reporting, I was asking how people died, who killed them, their manner of death. But the longer I was covering it seemed like there were other questions that needed to be asked which I asked through the book in that why did they have to die, what was the rationale behind it,&quot; she added.Evangelista also looked at how Duterte worked his way to the presidency. &quot;Certainly, what interests me very much when it comes to President Duterte is that he is phenomenal storyteller and that&#x27;s what he did. He told all of us a story, he took every fear and every uncertainty fueled by decades of failed expectations for many reasons and then he gave the enemy a name, it was the scourge of illegal drugs,&quot; the author said. &quot;People voted for him for many reasons and what I wanted to do in the book was to look at the language that he used, to look at the story that he told and to look at the people who listened to that story and try to listen to what they heard because people voted for Rodrigo Duterte for many reasons,&quot; she added.The Filipino journalist thanked the families who entrusted their story to her and immortalizing it in the book. &quot;My hope for this is first for us to listen to the language of anyone, any politician, any autocrat, any person, and realize that every story depends on the teller and it is also my other hope that I at least honored the people who trusted me with their stories,&quot; Evangelista said.&quot;I took very little risk compared to the people who actually allowed themselves to be named in this book so I&#x27;m grateful for them and I hope I did them justice,&quot; she added. Evangelista also expressed her gratitude as the novel was received well by the public. &quot;Some People Needed Killing&quot; was among the lists of recommended books by the New York Times and TIME magazine.&quot;Not only am I a first-time author, it is my first time publishing outside of the Philippines. I was always a staff writer for an institution, I was working for the Inquirer and then for ANC and for Rappler so I had never tried writing elsewhere,&quot; she said.&quot;I also didn&#x27;t know if a war in the Philippines would matter globally, given already what&#x27;s happening all over the world. I am very surprised and grateful for the reception.&quot;

With her book 'Some People Need Killing,' Filipino journalist Patricia Evangelista hopes that readers would look at the drug war victims beyond the spot reports.

How Patricia Evangelista came to write 'Some People Need Killing'

News

Entertainment

Lifestyle

Sports

Metro.Style

More

Traffic

Manila

Horoscope

Lifestyle

How Patricia Evangelista came to write 'Some People Need Killing'

Josiah Antonio,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 27, 2023 07:23 PM PHT

Read More:

books

Some People Need Killing

Patricia Evangelista

war on drugs

drug war victims

Rodrigo Duterte

ABS-CBN is the leading media and entertainment company in the Philippines, offering quality content across TV, radio, digital, and film. Committed to public service and promoting Filipino values, ABS-CBN continues to inspire and connect audiences worldwide.

Corporate

Investors

Governance

International Distribution

Corporate

Governance

Investors

International Distribution

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

AI Policy

Terms of Service

Advertise with Us

© 2025 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2025 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2025 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.