DeepSummary
The episode features an interview with journalist Patricia Evangelista, who covered the brutal 'war on drugs' in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte. Evangelista discusses her approach to trauma reporting, capturing vivid details of extrajudicial killings while minimizing further trauma to victims' families. She highlights the language used to dehumanize drug addicts and dealers, justifying their murders as necessary.
Evangelista shares how she gained rare access to police officers like Colonel Robert Domingo, who was later implicated in outsourcing murders to vigilantes. She reflects on the challenges of maintaining ethical boundaries with traumatized sources while telling their stories. The episode delves into Evangelista's writing process for her memoir 'Some People Need Killing' and the letters she has received in response.
The conversation explores Evangelista's background, from winning a speaking competition as a hopeful youth representative to her disillusionment with presenting an optimistic national image. Her journey underscores the toll of bearing witness to atrocities, grappling with the human cost behind the statistics, and striving to honor victims' stories.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Patricia Evangelista pioneered a form of 'trauma reporting' to ethically cover the devastating violence of Duterte's drug war in the Philippines.
- Evangelista grappled with maintaining boundaries while building trust with traumatized sources like victims' families.
- Her memoir exposes how dehumanizing language enabled and justified extrajudicial killings of suspected drug addicts and dealers.
- Covering such atrocities took a personal toll, but Evangelista strove to honor victims' stories and bear witness.
- Evangelista's journalism journey transitioned from portraying national optimism as a youth to confronting harsh truths.
- Building rare source relationships with police like Colonel Domingo revealed darker realities behind the drug war rhetoric.
- Language was central to Evangelista's storytelling - capturing vivid details while explicating dehumanizing terminology.
- Her work has provided a voice for tragedy, igniting reflection among readers on complicity in human rights abuses.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Some people need killing, is not Duterte's language. He may have said it. I'm sure he said it at some point or another, but it was a vigilante who told me. He described himself as a good man, as a religious man, as someone who believed that the death of a drug dealer would make the future safer for his children. And then I asked him how he squared that he's. How he squared the killing with being a good man. And he said, 'ma'am, I'm not a bad guy. I'm not all bad. It's just some people need killing.'“ by Patricia Evangelista
- “Was I surprised? Yes. Yes, I was. He knew what I did. He understood that I drew a hard line. And it wasn't that I thought he was clean because you never assume that of any of the police, just as a function of survival and protection. You don't assume that it was just odd.“ by Patricia Evangelista
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1/31/24