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Some People Need Killing

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Journalist Patricia Evangelista came of age in the aftermath of a street revolution that forged a new future for the Philippines. Three decades later, in the face of mounting inequality, the nation discovered the fragility of its democratic institutions under the regime of strongman Rodrigo Duterte.

Some People Need Killing is Evangelista's meticulously reported and deeply human chronicle of the Philippines' drug war. For six years, Evangelista chronicled the killings carried out by police and vigilantes in the name of Duterte's war on drugs—a war that has led to the slaughter of thousands—immersing herself in the world of killers and survivors and capturing the atmosphere of fear created when an elected president decides that some lives are worth less than others.

The book takes its title from a vigilante whose words seemed to reflect the psychological accommodation that most of the country had made: 'I'm really not a bad guy,' he said. 'I'm not all bad. Some people need killing.' A profound act of witness and a tour de force of literary journalism, Some People Need Killing is also a brilliant dissection of the grammar of violence and an important investigation of the human impulses to dominate and resist.

©2023 Patricia Evangelista (P)2024 Penguin Random House Audio Art & Literature Asia Corruption & Misconduct Journalists, Editors & Publishers Politics & Government Southeast Asia World
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This book will make you feel rage for the victims of the drug war during Duterte's regime. The author has written each victim's stories beautifully. The book criticises the past president, and I may be biased as to why its not an issue for me. But it also has given a good view on why people thought this man is a saviour and clung to his ideals.

Thanks for writing this book.

The narration was good at most parts. I'm not sure with the parts with accents. Some pronunciations of the Filipino words were not spot on.

A book all Filipinos should read

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