Murder as a Political Proposal: Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines

During election campaigns, all politicians make promises. Some seem feasible and are credible to voters, but the politicians themselves already know they won't be able or willing to keep them. Colossal promises, at the very least, denote determination, courage, and commitment on the part of the person making them. Rodrigo Duterte campaigned to become the new president of the Philippines, no one believed he could or would keep the barbaric promises he repeated at every rally and in every interview to restore order and security by summarily executing as many drug dealers and junkies as he could. Once he came to power in 2016, Duterte did keep his promise. And the killing began.

In the book Someone must kill them. Chronicle of violence in my country, Patricia Evangelista (Manila, 1985) explains in detail and from all angles what Duterte's war "on drugs" was like during his six years in office (2016-2022). She does so in the first person, placing herself within the story but always in an intelligent and discreet manner, not to monopolize the spotlight but to complement the harsh, cruel coldness of the facts with emotional vividness and ethical temper, with a personal vision of the extremely complicated Philippine history (Spanish colony, North American colony, dictatorships, interference abroad) journalistic in a country where power knows it goes unpunished and, therefore, with the same implacable ease is capable of both manipulating words and public discourse as well as crushing dissidents and critics. Thus, the final paragraph of the prologue is a declaration of civic-moral principles and at the same time a programmatic vindication of professional rigor: "This is a book about the dead, and about the people they leave behind. It is also a personal story, written in my own voice, as a citizen of a nation I cannot recognize as my own. I refuse to give up my book."

Years Chasing Violence

Like the best books of this kind, Evangelista has been writing for years without even realizing she was writing it. Journalist for the media outlet RapplerBefore Duterte took office, Evangelista had already specialized in trauma and disaster journalism. He would go to where people were dying, whether from a typhoon or a murder, and report on it. When Duterte, with his incendiary populism and manipulative lies, came to power, he made people believe that the Philippines was on the verge of becoming a narco-state and that to prevent it, a firm hand was needed (extreme draconian measures, extrajudicial executions by death squads, abuses of power of all kinds) shock, but he already knew how to do his job. And he accumulated literally incredible material. In the book, she includes conversations, stories and situations with victims and their families, with journalists even more experienced than she, with politicians and police officials, and also with hitmen. The result is a gruesome and tragic mosaic of lives crossed by poverty, fear and a violence that ignites, spreads and advances like a wildfire.

Aware that to explain them properly she needs to put Duterte's six years as president into context, Patricia Evangelista also dedicates many pages to the long history of the Philippines, from the dual Spanish colonial rule and From the Yankee era to the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and the struggles of the opposition during the years that Dutrete imposed the small town of Davao City. The dead that fill the pages of this book are so many, and the forms of death are so different and so similar, that reading is uncomfortable and exhausting. Evangelista's robust and courageous prose also makes it hypnotic, instructive, and enthralling.