#30 [2024/CBR16] Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista

Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in my Country (2023) by Patricia Evangelista was another Barack Obama recommendation. It is a non-fiction account of Rodrigo Duterte and his "war on drugs" that killed thousands of innocent people when he was President of the Philippines from 2016-2022. Patricia Evangelista is a journalist from the Philippines who personally investigated and reported on many of these extrajudicial killings that were attributed to Duterte and his regime.

I knew (and still know) very little about the Philippines, although this book greatly increased my knowledge. Evangelista dives pretty deep into some history of the Philippines and how Duterte came to power. She also shares a number of very personal and heart wrenching stories of people who were brutally murdered for the sake of Duterte's war on drugs.

The thing that struck me most when reading this book were the similarities between Duterte and Trump. This was a disturbing read because of the violence and lack of humanity displayed. Sometimes the terrible actions felt very far from my experiences, but unfortunately, I often felt eerie Deja vu the more I read about Duterte. 

Duterte campaigned heavily on the fact that he was going to clean up the streets and get rid of drugs in six months. He publicly boasted about killing criminals and drug addicts. He also publicly encouraged the police to kill drug addicts and said he would pardon them if human rights organizations came after them. He attacked the media when they did not support him, calling them "fake news." In support of these drastic measures, he made up facts and figures--lying about how big the problem was. When people pointed out that he was wrong, he just screamed his own numbers louder. Duterte would go back and forth. One moment he was encouraging extrajudicial killings and saying the human rights organizations were worthless. The next moment he was saying that of course there weren't any extrajudicial killings. 

One of the most disturbing aspects of Duterte, and definitely something that Evangelista points out, is that he was voted into power by the people and supported by the majority while he was in power. He said what he was doing out loud. Some chose to believe he was lying or exaggerating, but it was not a surprise. There were even people who had voted for him, who had family members killed by him--because they didn't think of their family as the "criminals" Duterte was always yelling about. And many of these victims were not criminals at all. Some had drug problems, some were just children, and one man was having a party that the policeman next door considered too loud.

This book was eye opening, well written, and definitely recommended.