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In 'Some People Need Killing,' stories of PH 'drug war' victims are immortalized

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Don Tagala | TFC News New York

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zKnmTcyAu_w?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></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>When Patricia Evangelista decided to tell her story as a trauma reporter during some of the most recent darkest days in Philippine history – the result was a book described as a “journalistic masterpiece.”“Some People Need Killing” is her personal record of some of the thousands who died allegedly in the hands of Philippine police and vigilantes during the Rodrigo Duterte administration’s bloody “drug war.”“Some People Need Killing” has been included in TIME magazine’s Top 100 Must-Read Books of 2023. In a social media post, Evangelista said she is grateful “to have a part in our stories being heard.”The Filipino journalist shared that writing the book was not easy, as she had to endure five years of reliving the stories. “Writing this book was a terrible experience,” she said. “I thought that when I write it, I would have a clear mind. But it was difficult. I don’t know I would ever want to do it again. But I’m glad it’s there.”Evangelista also said she had to write the book because she owed it to the family and the victims of the “drug war” to tell their stories.“[The victims] are often reduced to numbers, part of the statistics, a one-liner sentence or a spot report,” she said in Filipino. “I thought that they deserve more than just that. I can’t claim to be successful. But I hope to have done a little bit more.&quot;The “drug war” is now the subject of a probe by the International Criminal Court. The current Philippine administration has since taken an approach different from the “Tokhang” – or knock and plead operations of the previous government. But families of victims are still seeking for justice that they fear they may never have. One thing is for sure though: the alleged extrajudicial killings under that period are now immortalized in Evangelista’s memoir of murder.

The stories of the 'drug war' in the Philippines that its victims never lived to tell are told in the book 'Some People Need Killing.'