''Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country'' is a 2023 book by journalist

Patricia Evangelista Patricia Chanco Evangelista is a Filipina journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Manila, whose coverage focuses mostly on conflict, disaster and human rights. She is a multimedia reporter for online news agency Rappler and is a writer-at-la ...

, published by Random House. The book documents the thousands of Filipinos killed by extrajudicial

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are ...

s and vigilantes during the administration of the president of the Philippines

Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945), also known as Digong, Rody, and by the initials DU30 and PRRD, is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the chairperson ...

Narrative

The book documents some of the extrajudicial killings of Philippine citizens that occurred during the presidential tenure of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 to 2022, with many killings being conducted by death squads which were emboldened by the president. The

Philippine National Police The Philippine National Police ( fil, Pambansang Pulisya ng Pilipinas, acronymed as PNP) is the armed national police force in the Philippines. Its national headquarters is located at Camp Crame in Bagong Lipunan ng Crame, Quezon City. Current ...

estimates the death toll of the extrajudicial killings at 8,000, with higher estimates of dead as high as 30,000. Duterte had allegedly employed death squads ( Davao Death Squad) to kill low level criminals, drug dealers, and drug users during his more than two-decade tenure as mayor of Davao City. During his successful presidential run in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, he campaigned on his plan to kill suspected criminals. Evangelista interviewed families of the victims, as well as members of the death squads. The title comes from a quote from a perpetrator describing his actions as making his neighborhood safer for his children by killing suspected criminals: "I'm not all bad. Some people need killing".

Reception

Writing for the '' New York Times'',

Jennifer Szalai Jennifer Szalai is the nonfiction critic at ''The New York Times''. Szalai was born in Canada and attended the University of Toronto, studying political science and peace and conflict. She also holds a master's degree in international relations fro ...

stated that Evangelista vividly documented the killings, portraying the grief experienced by her and others due to such senseless killings. Szalai stated: "She pays close attention to language, and not only because she is a writer. Language can be used to communicate, to deny, to threaten, to cajole. Duterte’s language is coarse and degrading. Evangelista’s is evocative and exacting." The book was named one of the ten best books of 2023 by The ''New York Times'' as well as being one of the 100 must read books of 2023 according to '' Time Magazine''.

Awards

The book was longlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, and won the 2024

Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism The Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism is an annual literary award for "a journalist whose work has brought public attention to important issues", awarded by the New York Public Library. It was established in 1987 in memory of j ...

References

{{reflist History books about the Philippines Philippine books